What is really green?

In our current consumer society that is so quick to adapt to marketing and advertising tactics that persuade buyers, it can be difficult to know when you are being duped by marketers. This is sentiment is especially applicable for products that are marketed as "green" or "eco-friendly." The growing phenomenon of selling "green" products that aren't actually as environmentally friendly as they claim to be have been labelled as greenwashing. Budinsky and Bryant's article (2013) expresses this difficulty in being truly green, as it is hard to know when you are purchasing a product that is actually as environmentally friendly as it claims to be (p.209). Their work exposes greenwashed products including Clorox Green Works, the Ford Escape, and the Toyota Prius. These are all products that appear to be completely environmentally friendly, but are actually far from it when you take the entire lifespan of the product into consideration (Budinsky & Bryant, 2013, p.222). I can personally attest to this idea, as I drive a Toyota Prius. My dad bought the car back in 2008, thinking that he was making a pro-environment choice by driving a hybrid car. Little did he know that the total lifespan of the Prius actually makes it an extremely environmentally unfriendly product. However, as Budinsky and Bryant note, you would not be able to gather this through their advertisements.

The Difficulty of Distinguishing 'Green-ness'

As noted above, it can be difficult to see through advertising to determine the true green value of a product. This idea is supported in the research of Spack, Board, Crighton, Kostka, and Ivory. Their article explores how it is relatively easy for products to get approval to be considered as "green" and advertise this on their packaging (Spack et al., 2012, p.441). The research also suggests that consumers can effectively determine products that are more green than others, however, any product with green labelling is more likely to be sold than products that don't identify as green (Spack et al., 2012, p.453). Due to this confusion that can be created with products that are advertised as green, I believe that federal governments need to step in and increase regulations for products to be considered "green."

Bibliography

Budinsky, J., & Bryant, S. (2013). It’s not easy being green: The greenwashing of discourses in advertising. The Canadian Journal of Communication, 38, 207-226.

Spack, J., Board, V., Crighton, L., Kostka, P., & Ivory, J. (2012). It’s easy being green: The effects of arguments and imagery on consumer responses to green product packaging. Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture, 6(4), 441-458.