Green Marketing and Green Advertising

Pop Culture icon, Kermit the Frog, is often quoted as saying "It's not easy being green!" And this translates across corporate America, too! Being "GREEN" is a current trend of corporate marketing and advertising. Corporations attempt to associate their products and identity with environmental values and images, and even advertise their products as having a minimal impact on the environment. But how “green” are these companies really?

In an article in the Boston Globe, Beth Daley discusses the new Chevy Tahoe Hybrid which was named ‘Green Car of the Year’ by an automobile magazine. The Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, which only gets 20 miles per gallon, is an example of “green washing” - the marketing of faux green products (Daley, 2008).

The article also states another common product that claims to be good for the environment, the household cleaner Simple Green. However, one of Simple Green's key ingredients, butyl cellosolve, is the same toxic solvent found in traditional all-purpose cleaners. The label even cautions users not to "dispose of . . . near storm drains, oceans, lakes or streams." (Daley, 2008).

The Federal Trade Commission has the authority to investigate false marketing claims, but has not updated its ‘green guides’ since 1998. The agency has not issued any decisions about green marketing in the past five years. Too many customers trust companies’ claims. According to a survey released by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and Cone LLC, about 47 percent of respondents said they trusted companies to tell them the truth in environmental messaging, and 45 percent said they believed companies are accurately communicating information about their impact on the environment. But, when it comes to advertising correct environmental information, there is virtually "zero enforcement," said Scot Case of TerraChoice Environmental Marketing, a consulting company based in Philadelphia and Ottawa. Last year, his company conducted a study that found that 99 percent of 1,018 green advertising claims of everyday consumer products could be misleading. (Daley, 2008).

I think it is absurd that companies can claim anything they want on their products without having to prove it, especially environmental claims. A company can claim that their product is “nature’s finest” or “uses no chemicals” but the government does not require the company to be telling the truth. If there is no regulation to what can be said, how is the consumer to know what actually is in the product that they are buying? There really is no way. It is kind of a sticky situation because environmental information campaigns encourage people to buy organic foods, use less, recycle more, and be more environmentally friendly. So consumers who react to these advertisements then go buy these products that claim to be “green” which may actually not be any better for the environment, just more expensive for the consumer. Are environmental information campaigns really to benefit the environment, or could they just be a conspiracy to perpetuate this trend of purchasing environmentally friendly, ‘green’ products?

“What’s really going on?”

Sources:

Daley, Beth. (2008). Not As Green As They Claim To Be. The Boston Globe, May 14, 2008. Retrieved from
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/05/14/not_as_green_as_they_claim_to_be/?page=full