Greenwashing Earth Day! Oh, No! Say It Ain’t So!

March 25th, 2008

Say it ain’t so. If environmentalism were religion, this marketing campaign from my beloved Barnes & Noble would be a blasphemy. Take a look at this pic:

earth-day-pic.jpg

Yes, you saw it correctly the first time. Did shock and disbelief make you look again? That’s what happened to me when I saw the sign “Celebrate Earth Day…All Products Made from Eco-Friendly Materials” perched above a table of plastic shrink-wrapped notebooks made of recycled paper.

Really? Since when did plastic shrink-wrapped books become eco-friendly? We should all be looking for ways to reduce our consumption of plastic, especially on Earth Day!

Twenty lashes with a wet noodle. This one goes down as one of the worst examples of corporate greenwashing I’ve seen. Sorry to single you out, Barnes & Noble, but please, drop this campaign!

Here’s a free green marketing tip, B&N. Ditch these signs (please recycle them!). How about some free author readings of the “green books” you had on display next to your plastic shrink-wrapped notebooks? Share some ideas from great green authors about how to go green. Now that would be a terrific way for B&N to celebrate Earth Day! Don’t like that idea? How about doing a better job of promoting your used books on Barnes & Noble.com? You know, reduce, re-use, recycle…

Have you seen other pathetic corporate attempts to celebrate Earth Day? Leave a comment and share!

— Lynn

Copyright 2008 OrganicMania


6 Responses to “Greenwashing Earth Day! Oh, No! Say It Ain’t So!”

  1. nadine Sellers on March 25, 2008 9:33 am

    and the leader of the greenwashing police is….
    your plastics detectors are on full alert and functioning.

    it’s like driving down the road and noticing every single Wolkswagen, after you buy one, you see them everywhere.

    good thing i don’t have one, but i am going to see shrink-wrap in my dreams now.

    happy green dreams to you and the little armies of plastic watchers.

    Yes, Nadine! Plastic is pernicious, esp. after you have little munchkins! — Lynn

  2. Mother Earth on March 25, 2008 10:53 am

    what gets me the most is folks are going for it ….so many think it’s a step in the right direction.

    Well, B&N has it half right…if you’re going to buy a notebook, buy one made of with recycled paper. What irked me about this is that they’re trying to turn Earth Day into an excuse for consumption…and the products they displayed were wrapped in plastic. There are so many other more appropriate ways B&N could have chosen to observe Earth Day. — Lynn

  3. mama k on March 27, 2008 6:45 am

    Earth Day is becoming a consumer holiday! WTH? If that is not irony I don’t know what is.

    Exactly – I hope we can nip this in the bud! — Lynn

  4. Beth aka Fake Plastic Fish on March 30, 2008 7:40 pm

    Here! Here!

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