Greenwashing

A colleague recently passed along an announcement from a well-known paint company.  Appears said company is launching its new line of eco-friendly paints.  Wow!  I was excited to think that someone had finally cracked the code and made a more environmentally sound paint product.  Not so fast.  You see, these paints just have eco-friendly sounding names like Rainforest Green and Lakewater Blue.  Shut up!  It would seem this company thinks that by calling its products eco-friendly -- presto, chango -- they are.  That, my friends, is greenwashing at its best.  And not only is it bad for the environment, it doesn't paint PR professionals in a very good light either.

Comments

[Ann Higgins]

Syd,

How right you are! With more and more editors looking for "green" stories, more and more companies are trying to hop on the environmental bandwagon with little more than a few lines of copy.

In fact, one of my client wanted me to do a release on their green efforts recently, which consisted of turning out their lights in the evening and recycling office trash. After a good talking to, we were able to redirect their efforts and our time!