Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - It's Not Easy Being Green: Green Marketing

Episode Date: July 23, 2022

This week, Terry O'Reilly looks at the ever-changing world of Green Marketing. He'll look back at how the green movement started, how it's evolved, how marketers navigate the shoals of green marketing today - and what it all means to everyday consumers. One thing for sure... it's not easy being green. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please, do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan, you just have to love storytelling.

Subscribe now, and don't miss a single beat. Due to popular demand, we've dug very, very deep into our archives and are pleased to announce the re-release of episodes from the last season of The Age of Persuasion. And we've remastered them to fit our Under the Influence format. Here is an episode from 2011. This is an apostrophe podcast production. You're so king in it. You're so king in it.

You're so king in it. Your teeth look whiter than no nose. You're not you when you're hungry. You're a good hand with all things. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. It was first created in 1874, but its insect-killing properties were not discovered until 1939. It was called Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane,

or DDT for short. It was also called the insect bomb in World War II for its ability to control malaria among troops by killing mosquitoes on contact. After the war, DDT was used as an agricultural insecticide, and its unmatched effectiveness for killing pests soon made its production and use skyrocket. But an American biologist started to notice that DDT had some less desirable effects. Her name was Rachel Carson. She had received her MA in zoology in 1932

and was hired by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries to write radio scripts during the Depression. She supplemented her income writing feature articles on nature for the Baltimore Sun. In the early 1950s, Carson wrote several best-selling books that constituted a biography of the ocean.

But the effects of widespread DDT spraying disturbed her. Her research showed that DDT was not a miracle chemical, but was, in fact, causing detrimental effects to the environment. So, in 1962, Rachel Carson published a book titled, Silent Spring. It was a powerful and groundbreaking work that declared, in no uncertain terms,

that pesticides were harming human and animal life, in particular, birds. The title of her book referred to a spring in the not-too-distant future where there would be no bird songs because of DDT. The book was a runaway bestseller. This is one of the nation's bestsellers, first printed on September 27, 1962. Up to now, 500,000 copies have been sold, and Silent Spring has been called the most controversial book of the year. It woke the public up to the fact that pesticides were deadly to our ecosystem and could cause cancer. President John F. Kennedy ordered an immediate investigation.

The chemical industry attacked Carson as a, quote, hysterical woman who was unqualified to write such a book. But the more the chemical industry attacked, the more it only increased public awareness of the issue. Eventually, Carson was proved right. Eight years later, DDT was banned in 1972. Silent Spring has been long considered one of the best non-fiction books of the 20th century. But more than anything,

it is widely credited with helping to launch the environmental movement. Carson scholar H. Patricia Hines said, Silent Spring altered the balance of power in the world. No one since would be able to sell pollution as the necessary underside of progress so easily or uncritically. Being environmentally aware has created an increasing challenge for advertisers, particularly in the 21st century, where advertising anything as green is coming under more and more scrutiny. Come with me for a walk through the world of green marketing.

I'll show you some companies doing it right and some doing it wrong. I'll take you through ever-changing green standards and greenwashing. And while there's a lot of vagueness and confusion out there, one thing is certain for marketers. It's not easy being green. You're under the influence. The Green Movement, as we know it, has a very interesting timeline. A loose history would begin with Silent Spring in 1962. Then, eight years later, in 1970, the first Earth Day was celebrated.

It was founded by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, who recruited Julian Koenig to help him. Koenig was the legendary copywriter from DDB New York who created the famous Volkswagen campaign. He coined the term Earth Day because it sounded like birthday. And he chose his own birthday, April 22nd, as the date. Millions of people gathered to protest environmental abuses on that day, which led to the creation of the landmark environmental laws. Next, President Richard Nixon started the EPA, or Environmental Protection Agency.

In 1971, Environment Canada began. Soon after, phosphates in detergents became a problem. In many ways, the phosphate-free issue was one of the first times the public changed their behavior when it came to buying products. Manufacturers changed their products as a result. They're all a lot. Right. Hot water, cold water. What's the difference? Yeah, what detergent works on really tough stains?

Like greasy oil. The worst. Watch. We're dropping greasy oil into three leading detergent solutions. Nothing will happen. Oil is impossible. Look, this one's breaking up. What detergent is that? Low phosphate oil with bleach, borax, and brighteners.

These work clothes are so clean. All's what you need to clean the tough stains. All's what I need to clean everything. In 1972, participants from 114 countries gathered in Stockholm, Sweden, for a UN conference on the human environment. Only one person at that conference was an actual environment minister, because, at that time, only one country had created that position. One of the next big signposts was unleaded gas. Remember a time when you pulled up to a gas station and you had to be specific?

Unleaded or leaded? Unleaded, please. Gotcha. Can you clean my windshield, too? Nope. Thank you. In 1974, a landmark scientific study was published by Professor Frank Sherwood Rowland, stating the CFCs, or chlorofluorocarbons, were depleting the ozone layer.

In 1978, the U.S. banned CFC use in aerosol cans. Canada followed suit not long after. In 1983, the term greenhouse gases entered the lexicon, which was said to lead to another term, global warming. In May of 1985, British scientists reported a disturbing discovery. Time-lapse satellite pictures have confirmed the annual appearance of the massive hole, shown in red and purple at the center. One theory for the appearance of the hole in the ozone layer is that it's a natural phenomenon

caused by the Antarctic's climate and the solar cycle. But the most popular theory is that man-made chemicals, chlorofluorocarbons, known as CFCs, are causing the problem. The hole in the ozone layer led to many fears, one of which was increased UV damage to skin, which prompted the public to demand better skin protection products. The sunscreen industry answered by manufacturing lotions with various SPF numbers, or sun protection factors,

ranging from low single digits up to 20, 30, 40, and even 50 plus SPF. Beginning with the publication of Silent Spring in 1962, you soon realized that various environmental crises have provoked behavioral change, and new behavioral changes created new demands from the public. And all along, it has required very delicate, very careful marketing on behalf of advertisers. One of the biggest problems for marketers is that sustainability is a moving target. And there haven't been any universally accepted baselines or calculators.

Are paper products green and good? Or do they flatten forests? Is glass eco-friendly? Or does it take a lot more fuel to transport glass than it does plastic? Is cotton one of the most natural products in the world, or is cotton one of the world's biggest pesticide crops? It's a very complicated issue. With regular advertising, an advertiser can create their own brand image in whatever fashion the advertiser chooses with virtual freedom. But not so with marketing green products.

Because with green marketing, the public wants to know a company's motives immediately. Green marketing ignites scrutiny. The advertising industry has been its own worst enemy in many ways. There has been a century-long cycle of hype and disappointment. In 2007 alone, marketers registered a record 300,000 green trademarks with patent offices. More trademarks than at the height of the dot-com craze. That stat alone should tell you everything.

Writer and adman John Grant, who has shaped a lot of my thinking in this area, tells the following story in his excellent book, The Green Marketing Manifesto. In the UK recently, it was discovered that 33 out of 40 bottled waters failed to meet the exacting standards of London tap water. The public was outraged. It was as if they should have been filtering bottled water, not the tap water. Those seemingly endless revelations

are breeding grounds for cynicism. In green marketing, many companies have been accused of greenwashing. To define that term, we've asked our own Steve Gardner to explain. Steve? Terry, the term greenwashing is defined as the deceptive use of green marketing or PR

that gives the public a misleading perception that a company's products or policies are environmentally positive. The term was coined by New York environmentalist Jay Westerveld in a 1986 essay. It was a play on whitewashing, and he was questioning the hotel industry's practice of placing placards in each room asking guests to reuse their towels to save the environment. Westerveld stated that in most cases, this was merely a profit grab by the hotels. The money saved by not having to launder the towels was a financial motivation, not an

environmental one. The essay generated a huge amount of attention, the term greenwashing stuck, and has been in use ever since. Terry? Thanks, Steve. While there have been countless examples of greenwashing over the years, one of the most cited examples comes from one of the world's biggest corporations. In the year 2000, this corporation launched a new advertising campaign.

They spent over $200 million rebranding the company, unveiling a new slogan and a brand new logo. Is it possible to drive a car and still have a clean environment? To refine a cleaner gasoline? Can solar power become mainstream?

Could business go further and be a force for good? Can 100,000 people in 100 countries come together to build a new brand of progress for the world? We think so. And today, BP, Amoco, Arco, and Castro get together to try Beyond Petroleum. BP. The campaign strategy was to rebrand British Petroleum as a progressive energy company, not just an oil company. BP replaced its logo with a new vibrant green and yellow sunburst,

and lowercase BP letters were chosen to suggest the company was friendlier than the previous British Petroleum. But it was the new tagline, Beyond Petroleum, that immediately sparked attacks from all sides. It implied that wind and solar were being heavily invested in, that other alternatives to oil were being seriously sought out,

and that BP was the, quote, choice of the environmentally aware motorist. The reality was that BP, like other oil companies, was spending more resources than ever in oil exploration. Now, while it may seem that BP is an easy and obvious target, I bring it up because their campaign contains a very important lesson in green marketing. One of the reasons BP was attacked so hard for that campaign, even prior to its catastrophic oil spill in the ocean,

was not because they were worse than any other fuel company. It's because they proclaimed they were better. It was a fatal mistake in their marketing. You cannot be overly virtuous in green advertising. As John Grant notes, virtue cannot be proclaimed. It can only be deduced from your actions. Smart companies stay humble in their green marketing. If a company wants to be seen as green and ethical, it should just do it, not say it.

I, as your customer, will figure it out in no time. And together with the press, we will spread the word. There is a small pizzeria in New York called Pizza by Serté. They deliver by foot or by recycled bicycle. Their packaging is 100% recyclable and clever, too. The lids on the boxes are designed to easily detach and separate into four squares, each serving as an individual plate. Very smart.

Once the lid is gone to create those four serving plates, the bottom half of the box folds into a smaller, more convenient box to store leftover pizza and fits easily into the refrigerator. The pizzeria uses recycled materials whenever it can. All supplies and food are sourced locally, rainwater is collected and used wherever possible, and their building is LEED certified,

meaning the building was designed and built using the best green practices. Now, the reason I know all this is because the press told the story. If you were to look up Pizza by Serté online, you'll find the stories about them are endless. They have created a huge marketing buzz by walking the walk and by staying humble in their green messaging. The press and their customers are doing the rest. I've always believed that antique stores are among the greenest stores on the planet.

After all, they're in the recycling business. Here's a hilarious five-second radio ad for Jean Lacasse Antiques in Montreal. Hey, what's new? Nothing. Antique dealer Jean Lacasse. Nothing new? Just old stuff.

I think that ad says it all. But as the great philosopher Kermit T. Frog says, it's not easy being green. Sometimes half of what a company does is good, but the other half is not good at all. Some companies get half the green equation right. Take eBay. Hundreds of thousands of products destined for a landfill have found an

afterlife through eBay auctions. But there's also a downside to eBay. Lots of air and land travel is required to ship those packages around the globe. Sustainability is a very complicated issue. See, it's not just the products, but the way they are manufactured, the way they are sourced, how people along the supply chain are treated, how the product is used, and how the product is discarded after use. It means that green isn't just a department or a box to be checked. It means a company-wide philosophy with tough principles. Companies must believe in sustainable business practices

and motivate their entire operation to want green initiatives. While this may seem like an internal issue, it has massive external ramifications. I see this happening already. People are choosing where to shop based on how they feel about the company itself,

not just the products that company sells. As John Grant says, it all comes down to this for advertisers. The task is to make green products seem normal, instead of making normal products seem green. It's a profound insight. Green marketing is about making truly green products become a normal part of life. Not trying to take an existing product that barely qualifies as green and suddenly marketing it as Earth-friendly. As we've said many times, one of the things advertising is incredibly good at

is normalizing new ideas. Take seatbelts. When I was learning to drive, you couldn't find a seatbelt in a car. Advertising took on the task of marketing the benefits of seatbelt use, and together with government legislation, it became normal behavior.

Buckle up for safety, buckle up. Buckle up for safety, always buckle up. Put your mind at ease, tell your riders please, get your seatbelts buckled, everybody buckle up. Same with drinking and driving. The task now is to normalize green products. Every company should have a noble mission or heroic quest when it comes to green marketing.

Marks & Spencer in the UK have such a quest. Their initiative is called Plan A. It's a plan that covers 100 commitments over five years that addresses the key social and environment challenges facing Marks & Spencer today and in the future. It includes becoming carbon neutral and only using carbon offsetting as a last resort.

Sending no waste to landfill. Extending all sustainable resourcing. Helping improve the lives of people in their supply chain. And helping customers and employees live healthier lives. What I like best about their Plan A initiative is their tagline, Plan A because there is no Plan B. It's a bold mission,

and they've put themselves firmly on the line by announcing it. It is widely believed that this initiative has put Marks & Spencer almost a year ahead of its competitors in the minds of the shopping public. Soon, marketers may be reworking their entire green marketing strategies. The Federal Trade Commission in the U.S., for example,

is tabling an entirely new set of green guidelines, the first in over a decade. Ad Age magazine reported that the guidelines could render most of the more than 300 environmental seals of approval on current products largely useless and possibly in violation

of FTC standards. The guides are expected to tighten standards for claims such as recyclable and biodegradable and regulate how the use of squishy terms like carbon neutral and sustainability can be used. As a spokesman for the FTC said recently, the bar has been set pretty low. Welcome to the new world of green. At the very intersection of the green movement and commercial marketing, there is an elephant in the room. Essentially, the green world wants you to consume less, and the marketing world wants you to consume more. One rejects consumerism, the other fuels it.

The answer, of course, is for truly green products to become better than non-green products. If the offering is better and affordable, people will want it. And if people want it, that means companies can make the world a healthier place and be profitable. It's called a triple bottom line. Social results, environmental results, and financial results. I think for the first time in history, people want to align themselves with companies that make the world a better place. And they want to be loyal to companies that have noble goals. While green marketing is only the tip of that iceberg, it is vitally important because it's the tip that is most visible when you're under the influence.

I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the Terrastream Mobile Recording Studio. Producer, Debbie O'Reilly. Sound Engineer, Jeff Devine. Under the Influence theme by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. Music in this podcast provided by APM Music. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like Cause Marketing, Season 3, Episode 3. You'll find it in our archives wherever you listen to podcasts.

See you next time. Fun fact. The first item ever listed on eBay was purchased by a Canadian. Lightning reflexes.