5 Holes That Allow Greenwash in Advertising in the US

Green SUV? This gas and electricy guzzler is one with nature. The picture tells us so.

Hogwash. Rubbish. Poppycock. Or my favorite: Bull. It is all the same as Greenwash. It’s not uncommon to get excited about a few great products that boast to “save rain forests and fuzzy little animals” or SUVs that are so eco-friendly that flowers shoot from their exhaust pipes. While Company X is planting a tree for every ten dollars customers spend on their clothes, the clothes are being manufactured by poor, starving children halfway across the world. This type of boasting about being green when the information is censored and/or skewed is labeled as greenwash: it consists of blatant exaggerations and misleading notions mostly, but may involve noting positive aspects of a product or service while strategically ignoring the product’s or service’s negative qualities.

Greenwash is hype about “eco-friendly”, “green”, “environmentally responsible” things. It exists because people want green/healthy products and services nowadays. Marketing professionals have picked up on the demand for this green market niche and use it to the fullest advantage. We are all victims of Greenwash. This “Greenwash Guide” reference guide is a funny, informational and witty piece. Give it a glance. Learn to better point out advertisements that try to pull the 100% organic, unbleached wool over your eyes… The best piece of information I came away from this piece with: American companies are under no obligation to steer away from exaggerating the ‘wonderful’ qualities of their products and services on their websites and in advertisements. US advertisers are able to do the following:

1. “use environmental images capable of making a sweeping claim of environmental benefit”,
2. “be technically or narrowly correct, without looking at the bigger picture”,
3. “present claims as universally accepted when the scientific basis is under dispute of inconclusive”,
4. “make claims indicating an environmental benefit that while literally true, is unlikely to happen in practice”
5. “use exaggerating language”

That means its your job to determine what is Greenwash.

Good luck.

This article was submitted by ThinkDwell.