With sustainability becoming somewhat of a household word these days in the wake of record-breakingly hot summers, higher impact winters, and super storms that threaten giant metropolis (s?), not to mention environmental concerns around the quality and quantity of natural resources - marketers are beginning to perceive the added value potential of advertising their product or service as having 'green' attributes.
What does this mean? Some ill-fated attempts are found to be untruthful in the inherent 'greenness' of a product - in truth a lazy attempt to influence a consumer's perception of what makes something environmentally friendly, when in fact - there are no true facts! We call this 'greenwashing', and the practice has frustrated consumers when the dirty secrets are revealed by concerned citizens and advocacy groups.
The website Greenwashing Index relates the unseemly act to political 'whitewashing', or "a coordinated attempt to hide unpleasant facts..." In ads, they suggest visiting the suspect product's website to uncover the following:
- Is it easy to find their sustainability business practices on the site?
- Is there information provided to back up their green claims?
- Do they attempt to share a story of their environmental journey?
Futerra, a sustainability communications consulting agency that specializes in sustainability in the UK, has it's own Greenwashing Guide with a more detailed and wonderfully illustrated booklet to assist you in your daily pursuit of products.
Futerra.co.uk
Luckily, there are a growing number of resources to help consumers make decisions on the truthfulness of an advertiser's green attempts to sell based on this attribute. For example, for health and beauty products, the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Database has thousands of products on file with rankings of their tested toxicity, allowing you to uncover whatever might be lurking in your daily beauty routine.
With these tools in hand, consumers may hope to go out into the market place a little more prepared to questions 'green' claims on products.
There is another side to bringing real sustainability into advertising that speaks to human wellbeing. These ads cater to filling primary needs of various audience, often through the use of a story. In 2012, the Rainforest Alliance released an ad intended to drive customers to buy environmentally sensitive products (bananas, coffee, etc) with their 'frog-stamp' of rainforest approval. The ad they devised was brilliantly targeted toward the cognitive dissonance and insecurities that can plague some consumers who feel that they could do more to help environmental issues, in this case, the rainforest:
The video has over a million hits and was recently nominated for a People's Voice Webby Award.
Other brands have fit themselves within the category of reaching out to address basic needs of people that desperately require their help and promotion of their situation for survival. The Indian Village of Thesgora has one of the highest rates of childhood death from diarrhea a terrible problem that can be solved from washing one's hands. Have a look at soap manufacturer Lifebouy's amazingly touching ad:
These types of ads speak address a different type of sustainability than the usual, "look how 'green' we are" message, which personally, I find little value in other than it is a weak attempt at self-promotion when done poorly. These ads are works of art, and they highlight the brand's social mission and sensitivities of its stakeholders. By highlighting the true story sustainability of your brand, product or company, you can create lasting value for consumers.
Sources:
Environmental Working Group .2014. Why This Matters - Cosmetics and Your Health. Retrieved from org/skindeep/2011/04/12/why-this-matters/.
Greenwashing Index. 2014. Greenwashing Index: Help Keep Advertising Honest. Retrieved from http://www.greenwashingindex.com.
Rainforest Alliance. 2012. Follow the Frog [video file]. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iIkOi3srLo.
Lifebuoy. 2013. Help A Child Reach 5 [video file]. Retrieved from: http://www.lifebuoy.com/socialmission/help-childreach5/.
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