30-3

I think the most interesting thing I took away from Adam Werbach's talk was that he seemed adamant that greenwashing was on the way out.

While I respect his opinion, I've got to say that I think this is more than a little naive. I would guess that we have a bit more time until brands stop greenwashing. Increasing consumer awareness does not instantly equate to corporate transparency, as he seemed to feel was the case. I would posit that this intellectual upsurge among the masses will be simply be met with an intellectual upsurge in greenwashing tactics.

Werbach is totally right about the days of slapping a green leaf on your labels makes you "green" in the consumers' eyes. Those days are gone, because the consumer has definitely gotten much more wary of environmentally friendly* messages.

*"Humans are a part of the environment. And it's friendly as hell to us! BOOSH!"

But just because brands can't get away with the ol' leafy green label business any more, doesn't mean they're going to stop looking for ways to skirt actually changing.

Stuff like the Chevron ad discussed in class will become the norm. Where brands encourage employees to bike to work and shit, then put out an ad talking about "human power." So it's like,

"Aww... That's nice. They bike to work, eat local, put solar panels up, and adopt, like, NINE puppies A DAY! They're so socially conscious. I'm going to use Xe for all my PMC needs!

Wait a minute... They kill people for money."

But that is just my overbearingly pessimistic view of things. Maybe (I'd certainly hope) Werbach is right. Lord knows he probably gets the benefit of the doubt, because of, like, the years of experience, the book under his belt, not to mention the whole "actually being a part of the industry" thing.

But I could've done that stuff. But, it's like, SOMEBODY has to make sure video games get played.