A word from our sponsors
By Gena Tuffery,
Manufacturers are missing the message, even when they pay for it
[Advertising]
You know something’s floating down the centre of the Main Stream when it starts bobbing up on daytime television. The Ellen Degeneres Show went green for the Queen on her birthday, dishing out groundbreaking advice like ‘turn your TV off at the wall when you’re not using it’. But the thing I found most interesting was the show’s ill-matched ad breaks. They had their own advice to give.
Your cat doesn’t like his food cold, the makers of Whiskers informed me. Buy him foil pouches—just tear, use and throw away. Keep your baby fresh with disposable nappies, the throwaway commentary continued. Keep your house fresh with a one-spurt-a-minute aerosol freshener. Keep yourself fresh with deep-cleansing acid rain.
Then there was an abrupt change in tone. Ellen was back and she had something to say: “If every home in America replaced one light bulb with a compact fluorescent light, it would be the equivalent of taking one million cars off the road.” Although she didn’t specify how many of those would be the latest Subaru 4WDs that had purred seductively through the last ad break, I still thought: Come on advertisers! Not only are you not tuned into the mainstream consciousness, you’re not taking advantage of it.
And TV is not alone in its incongruous gap between ads and ‘editorial’. The July edition of Next magazine proudly proclaimed itself to be ‘The Green Issue’ in a Kermit-inspired typeface. Yet of the 67 ads sandwiched between features like ‘24 ways to leave a lighter footprint’, only two were about sustainable products. Which almost cancelled out the three foil sachets of face cream that fell into my lap when I opened the magazine.
“If household shoppers tune in to hear a lesbian talk about global warming, it’s safe to assume they’re as ready to buy green products as they are to purchase three tablespoons of cat food in a foil pouch.”
But you New Zealand companies shouldn’t feel too bad—you may have social awareness levels lagging behind the average dole bludger, but you’re in keeping with your peers overseas. Pick up a copy of Vanity Fair’s ‘green issue’. Three green ads in that one.
The World Health Organisation reckons global warming may already cause over 150,000 deaths a year. So why are the ads in a green TV show or magazine—or any media—not filled by ads for power-saving bulbs and hybrid cars? Probably because there are more than two ad spaces but not many more than two types of hybrid car on the New Zealand market.
Well, why not? If household shoppers tune in to hear a lesbian talk about global warming, it’s safe to assume they’re as ready to buy green products as they are to purchase three tablespoons of cat food in a foil pouch. Come on manufacturers, catch up with us. You don’t have to stop making stuff, just make better stuff.
‘Better stuff’ is not epitomised by single-use tinfoil baking dishes, despite any number of chirpy assurances from Wendy Meyer that they’ll lead to “better living, everyone”. Sorry Wendy, but my idea of better living doesn’t occur in a world where the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps have just melted like the Wicked Witch of the West, flooding coastal areas with a fast-spreading puddle. And when all the refugees arrive here, where will they live? In the Glad factory? Tinfoil is a great heat insulator. Or maybe at the Meyer household? Better living, Wendy.
I can guess why it’s taking so long for manufacturers to acknowledge that green is the new black—R&D sucks up some big money, and investing big in something that will take time to garner a return is a drag. But so is walking to work, drinking water from the tap, waddling around in four jerseys and all the other things Degeneres helpfully suggested we do in order to stay alive.
So, makers of stuff, let’s make a deal. You invest in developing actual better stuff, like fast cars that only kill us the old-fashioned James Dean way, and we’ll invest money in buying them. Because don’t we want a world where we can live long and healthy lives and actually have fun doing so? That’s better living, everyone.
Comments
kim collins
I couldn't agree more regarding the 'better living' advertisements. How can they, with any conscience whatsoever, promote products that are so bad for the environment. I definitely won't be buying them!
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