Greenwashing in Media Essay

Because advertisements are purposely placed to be seen, it has become a part of our lives. Even when watching television there are constantly commercials trying to convince us to buy items that are often of a lower price. I’ve noticed that in these commercials they use tactics in order to try to engage the viewer. Not only do they show a low price but they often include multiple copies of the same item. For example, if there was a commercial about pillows, they would often include more than one of them for the same price. This makes people think they are getting an extremely good deal because more quantity for the same price. However, these items tend to be of low quality. As a result they may need to be constantly replaced and thrown away. This leads to a cycle of a company to sell, the consumer to buy, and to replace. In the process, these unwanted items are being thrown in landfills and polluting the Earth. As it mentions in, Bookmarks, Possessed by Our Possessions, “Passively buying into production practices that contribute to poisonous waste every time we go shopping depletes the earth in the process” (Cole 4). This statement is extremely accurate, especially in America. Although we have only 5% of the world’s population, we consume 30 percent of the world’s resources. And because of this, we also produce 30

In Micah White’s “Mental Environmentalism”, the author emphasizes the detrimental effects imprudent and pervasive commercial advertising has on society and compares it to a dystopia where we are captivated by consumerism. White explains that we must maintain a healthy mental environment because our external reality is essentially a reflection of our internal world and with the way advertisements have plagued our minds, it has resulted in devastating global issues like climate change. With constant exposure to advertisements daily, our ability and potential to be imaginative and think freely is limited, both traits that are vital for a society to thrive and flourish.

As we have seen an increase in awareness around sustainability and climate change, with the help of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth documentary in 2006, we see organizations moving towards mitigating the effects of climate change in various ways (Al Gore, n.d). As this corporate social responsibility has become more prevalent, organizations are now pushing their green agenda by publishing sustainability reports, doing mass marketing and implementing sustainable business practices to portray the image that they too are working towards protecting the earth’s natural environment all the while focusing on their underlying goal of selling their products and

Additionally, on a socio-cultural level, many consumers feel that restaurants partaking in green initiatives and operations are doing their part to not only help sustain the earth but also to conserving natural resources (Hu, Parsa & Self, 2010). “Going green” is not simply a trend in the food service industry but around the world and in all forms of business. Corporate companies consider “going green” as a sensible business strategy in building recognition for corporate social responsibility among consumers concerned with environmental conservation efforts. Lastly, technological initiatives such as Energy Star appliances (dishwashers, refrigerators, ice machines, etc.) and faucets that use less water must also be analyzed in their ecological conservation capability and weighed against their financial costs (University of Notre Dame, 2014).

Likewise, the green energy hoax could be due to companies wanting to take advantage of consumers by informing them of products that will help promote change to the environment when in actuality their claims are not living up to the product offered is capable of doing. However, many want to imply that their products serve a purpose to help the environment when they are actually hurting consumers pockets and causing more anxiety with the products that should be ensuring safety, benefit, and

Sustainability has achieved a more ecological tone in the past few decades in terms of a business model, but it originally derives from the concept that a business is successful due to the interconnected areas of economics, culture and ecology. Sustainability is now becoming a somewhat fad and thus it is understandable that it could be misconstrued by some as a form of “greenwashing”. Greenwashing is the idea that a company markets their “green” or environmentally friendly changes in policy and values, despite no actual concrete changes in these areas, for example some argue that Fiji Water greenwasher in terms of their marketing as an environmentally friendly water company despite their little effort to actually go carbon-neutral. Many companies are seeing the

In addition to the Seven Sins of greenwashing, another advertising method within the corporate green campaign is the usage of color, images of nature and branding. According to Meister and Japp, “Using nature merely as a back drop – whether in the form of wild animals, mountain vistas, or sparkling rivers—is the most common use of the natural world in advertisements” (142). Soft, natural colors, such as greens, browns, blues, and yellows are used to relax the consumer’s mind. They are pleasing to the eye. Use of plants, flowers, and landscapes are also used on advertisements and on product packaging. This can deceive the consumer’s perceived representation of the product.

Growing up in Oregon has presented me with many opportunities. As an Oregonian I believe I possess an elevated sense of my environmental responsibility. It is hard not to when you are raised in an environment with lush green landscapes that encompass one of the most eco-friendly cities in the world. Regardless of a green city or not, because of the pressure we have put on the earth, we have needed to create practices and products to relive some of that pressure. Not only has “going green” become a “trend”, but it has become a market. Consumers will pay a premium price for organic food, and eco friendly products such as biodegradable containers, low emission vehicles, green cleaning products, and are even charged for preferring plastic bags

On occasion, companies print labels on their products that are ambiguous to the environmental practices of the company; this is called Greenwashing. The authors of “The Seven Sins of Greenwashing” not only claims that there are seven sins that go hand in hand with greenwashing, but also breaks them down and explains them simply. Two of these seven sins stuck out to me the most. The Sin of Vagueness which is defined by the authors as being “committed by every claim that is so poorly defined or broad that its real meaning is likely to be misunderstood by the customer.”1 Certain product company 's use labels that claim their products as 'All Natural ', and 'Eco-friendly ' However, claiming a product is all natural does not always mean that it is green or safe to use. A few examples of all natural ingredients: Arseic, Uranium, Mercury and Formaldehyde.2

The economy today runs on an antiquated ritual of exploiting, plundering, devastation, and manipulation of land for material wealth, profiting the wealthy and condemning the poor. This mindset is no more sophisticated than feudalism, a system so bad it had to be outlawed along with witchcraft. The idea that exploitation of land is justified has brought plastics to the ocean and leveled rainforests. Large corporations have grown larger by manufacturing and production, depleting the planet’s resources in the process. Now, companies must make a combined effort to put the environment first, before profit. Because of their harmful practices, consumers have the right to know where products come from, how they’re made, and the impact on the environment. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the large corporations to change their harmful practices, to make strides towards ending climate change and use clean, sustainable methods.

One major problem as far as companies using green marketing and why it isn’t working is that the relatively vague definition of green marketing leaves a lot of room for loopholes. Green marketing, by simply being defined as “the marketing of products that are assumed to be environmentally safe,” allows companies to take advantage of this idea even if their products are not the best example of green ones (McClendon 1). Most companies also don’t practice what they preach in such

I.INTRODUCTION 1.1. Research Background Nowadays, people have become more aware of their environment. They try to slow down the process of global warming in many different ways. One of the efforts to slow down the process of global warming is that now people try to create, produce, and market the environmental-friendly products or, also known as, green products. People who pay attention to green products are called green consumers. According to Rodriguez and Ibeas (2006), “Green consumers” are those who care about the environmental attributes, and are willing to pay a premium for products manufactured in environmental-friendly

assuage any guilt they might feel about consuming mass quantities of unnecessary, disposable goods by dutifully tossing these items into their recycling bins and hauling them out to the curb each week”. (Westervelt, Amy. "Can Recycling Be Bad for the Environment?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 25 Apr. 2012. Web. 5 Dec. 2015). So why is the reason that companies are starting to “Go Green”? Its clearly obvious that the change in America from an industrial country to a environmental country has taught big business how to market environmentalism in mass quantities of their product. The strategy of the consumption-environment mindset are increasing rapidly. If this trend of buying without thinking does not slow down, with problems like not shifting priority from consumption to being environmentally aware, things will certainly worsen. On the topic of green marketing, people often see that green marketing refers to the advertising of objects or products with environmental characteristics to them (Like the Nestle bottle, for example). Terms like “Environmentally Friendly”, “Refillable”, and “Recyclable”, are some of the things people associate with green marketing. In reality

Within New Zealand there are various forms of legal greenwashing, the example provided by the participant being the BNZ bank investing in a Kiwi recovery program, while at the same time investing in oil exploration. Ambiguous claims by advertising are also legal and terms that imply nature, such as those which leave the consumer with the perception that it is good for the world only it is the opposite. The only instance where it is illegal is when the product implicitly claims to do something it does not. To explain this concept an example using theoretical soap was provided by the research participant, “‘using this soap is good for the environment’ is illegal whereas ‘using this soap is better for the environment’ is not; in light of what is the soap better than, using acid?” Currently the participant was unaware of any schemes in New Zealand that would allow governments and regulatory sectors to serve the public and advise them on green purchasing in a way that is fair to commercial interests. However, regarding green labels, credibility can be judged by looking at the packaging; credentials are typically referred to on packaging and on the company’s website. This lack of recognized green labels provides an opportunity for established brands, for instance Greenpeace to step in and provide more. Unfortunately, within New Zealand the participant did believe this would occur under any foreseeable government, stating that “implementing something like this would require society

According to Wassells et al. (1999), while consumers are in search for products that are eco-friendly, it is quite difficult to assess the environmental attributed of product. Consumers also do not have a proper scrutiny of identifying the specific characteristics of a product. As such, it becomes even more difficult to identify and locate the green products.