“Greenwashing” – your chance to fight back!

If you’ve watched any TV in the last few weeks, you cannot have failed to see the Persil “Small & Mighty” ad, but just in case, here’s another chance to view it on YouTube.

It’s a great ad, and gets its message across very effectively, but… the question is: is this greenwashing, or a genuine move on the part of Unilever to display their “green” credentials? I’m sure that you’ll have you own opinion on that, but now there’s a website that offers the opportunity for anyone to make their opinion known on this, or indeed any other ad, they feel is “greenwashing”. The site is the Greenwashing Index - here’s an extract from their site:

Welcome to the Greenwashing Index — home of the world’s first online interactive forum that allows consumers to evaluate real advertisements making environmental claims. “Going green” has become mainstream for businesses large and small — and that’s a good thing. What’s not so great is when businesses make environmental marketing claims that can be misleading. The intent of this Web site is to:

1. Help consumers become more savvy about evaluating environmental marketing claims of advertisers;
2. Hold businesses accountable to their environmental marketing claims; and
3. Stimulate the market and demand for sustainable business practices that truly reduce the impact on the environment.

Another example of how the web is enabling customers to put the pressure on us, as marketers, to get our stories straight!