Is Earth Day the New Christmas?
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA 
on 04.14.08
We didn't think it was possible for Corporate America to co-op and monetize Earth Day, but then again, previous generations probably thought the same about Christmas. Or, in the words of an Advertising Age op-ed: "It's nearly Earth Day: Time to consume more to save the planet. "
Much hue and cry has surrounded Wal-Mart's sudden eco-friendly makeover, but it certainly isn't the lone marketing behemoth exploiting a post-Inconvenient Truth nation's fears. Equally unlikely Earth Day champions now include JCPenney, which recently partnered with green-lifestyle expert Danny Seo to create its "Simply Green" home and fashion line; Banana Republic, which, in addition to launching an "eco" line, will donate 1 percent of sales from April 22 through April 27 to benefit the Trust for Public Land; as well as Macy's, which will offer 10 percent to 20 percent off most merchandise the weekend of April 26 in exchange for a $5 donation to the National Park Foundation.
Meanwhile, Clorox, which owns the Brita brand of water filters, is flexing its nascent green conscience by helping NBC's The Biggest Loser eliminate its use of plastic water bottles from the show's campus. Of course, with the season finale slated for Earth Day, the brand will be throwing quite a marketing hootenanny to publicize its role in the TV program. We wouldn't expect anything less.
While you can put no price on raising awareness, one question remains: Does turning Earth Day into a marketing blitz promote the cause or contribute to green fatigue? While many ongoing Earth Day campaigns offer some token reflection on the state of the planet, it's obvious that many companies are doing so merely to drive up sales in a climate of reduced consumer spending. Until the Federal Trade Commission reviews its green-marketing guidelines, which were last updated in 1998, well, corporate giants can paint the town—and the sweatshops they continue to operate—any shade of green they want. Feliz navidad. ::Advertising Age
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All Americans know how to do anymore is buy things. We don't volunteer for much, we don't belong to community organizations or clubs as much. So much time spent working to pay for our overpriced cars and mcmansions and health care costs. All the while our government sends our money off to the middle east.
Real Earth Day would be turning off electric devices, planting a tree, cleaning up a highway. Corporate America has taken over people's minds almost completely. They can make us think any holiday is time to have a sale to buy more stuff. Every store has Labor Day sales (labor should have the day off), Memorial Day, Fathers, Mothers, Valentines, Easter, etc etc sales.
That's not a bad idea, especially if environmentalists steal it.
We could start celebrating on the same days as the world's major religions.
Eventually, people would just switch over to celebrating the environment instead of Christmas, Easter, etc.
It worked well for Christianity, back in the day...
My hope is that by consistently putting my money where my conscience is, I'll be encouraging th mainstreaming of sustainable, chemical-free, merchandise.
Of course, since the first of the big 3 R's is REDUCE, I'll not be buying things I don't need simply because they're "Green."
This is pretty interesting. Seems Like Earth Day is becoming more and more mainstream. Hopefully we won't forget what the holiday is actually about!
Have you heard about Global Response? It's a non-profit org that carries out campaigns to protect environmentally valuable places around the world at the request of indigenous people. Their website is www.globalresponse.org if you'd like more info.
I think it is a backwards good thing. While selling clothes at a store is not exactly "green" by any means I can think of, the more people see and think Green, the more mainstream it becomes. The more mainstream it becomes, the more people are likely to actually make real Green choices like recycling.
I certainly hope Earth Day becomes a major holiday. It would even be great if it became a way of life. Americans are not alone in consumption. China, India, Germany, and Japan all consume unreasonable amounts of products and fuels. This is Earth's problem, not just America's.
With all of the "green" selling going on out there and the "eco-friendly" products that are being marketed by big businesses, we need to keep in mind Wal Mart has destroyed small business, doesn't provide support for its workers, is anti-union, doesnt pay a livable wages and has forced people out of there homes to make way for their next store. I dont know about Macy's or banana republic, but I'll bet many of the lines they carry are still made by children in countries most Americans can't pronounce. For me, if its going to be an eco-friendly product, it has to take into consideration all aspects of our environment.
Corporate America (including its blind consumers) could care less about Earth Day. Corporate exploits it to make a buck, and consumers use it as a means of easing guilt. You know, the same cycle that happens on any day. If corporate America really cared, they wouldn't have a Green Day Sale, they would plant more trees or have a clean up day. With this they could still market themselves AND it would help Green the earth. Awareness is the keyword, but there needs to be some responsibility with it.
On one hand, it is nice that corporate America is stepping up and providing more accessible eco-friendly options...although green-washing makes you need to be even more careful with your choices. An example: Clorox's greener cleaners. I was skeptical and read the label. While these products are made from plant derived oils, ect. They still are toxic enough to carry a warning label.
Sometimes the celeb band-wagon stuff makes me gag too. Something I saw on TV was a celebrity cooresponding telling all about the 'hottest' trends. She mentioned that a certain scarf was probably good for the environment because it was a charitable color. Wow! Just by the scarf being cream instead of bright white people now believe that it's better. What ever happened to making sure it was made from organic cotton and produced with no use of toxic chemicals? Apparently the average consumer will be convinced to buy the right color, not the right product.
Santa Claus's coat used to be "green" before a Coca-Cola campaign changed its color to red.
It totally makes me roll my eyes and mumble bad words under my breath.... but Dallas is right about spreading awareness to the folks who really are only mainstream and wouldn't get any dose of green if Wally world didn't shove it down their throats.
Umm. Happy Earth Day.
It totally makes me roll my eyes and mumble bad words under my breath.... but Dallas is right about spreading awareness to the folks who really are only mainstream and wouldn't get any dose of green if Wally world didn't shove it down their throats.
Umm. Happy Earth Day.
In a world where every drop counts, I want to congratulate brands that at least try. Advertisers are highly influential and in order to have the green mind set out there all efforts count, including the ones to sell MORE products. However one has to hope this is just an intermediate step to a larger deal - where brands take bigger responsibility embracing causes and offering interactive initiatives with consumers. Marketing the Earth Day in one hand minimizes the cause for the more educated, but on the other it's probably new information to many others. Because the message is simple, it shouldn't take so long to get it...I would love to see 'powerful' middle america in action to understand where this mind set can go...but soon, we have no time to waist. Brands: just lets be careful not to send the wrong message - buying more green products is not going to preserve the environment and that has to be clear to middle america consumer. those adds should always include a '10 steps road map' how to go green type of thing, from the beginning!
I admit I was doing a bit of an eye roll with the slew of "green" ads in the Sunday paper yesterday, but I agree with Dallas, raising awareness isn't a bad thing, and if corporations want to roll out their green initiatives, let them have it.
So they sell a bunch of low flow water devices, fluorescent bulbs, and safer pesticides to celebrate the day. Is that a bad thing? There are some people who'd never buy that stuff unless it was promoted heavily by places like Home Depot and Lowes.
And, by the way, having someone from Advertising Age complain about Green Advertising, is a bit like a porn star lobbying for tighter broadcast restrictions by the FCC.
Being new to treehugger, it was refreshing to see that I wasn't the only one observing this mainstream shift of the retail sector. I completely agree with fact that they are only trying to woo us into spending more money when we just need keep things longer and only buy when we absolutely need them.
I try to avoid Walmart but stopped in there tonight to pick up something I needed. I almost picked up one of their 99 cent cloth bags and then realized how retailers are shifting the cost of carrying your package out the door to the consumer for way more than the cost of some bags. Better yet, the store names are plastered on the bags and they are probably made in some third world country. Hmmm....makes you think about their motives.
at least there is some financial incentive for these massive corporations to go green. lord knows they certainly have contributed to the problem.
at least they can pretend to start helping
Only when I saw the Earth from space, in all its ineffable beauty and fragility, did I realize that humankind's most urgent task is to cherish and preserve it for future generations