Al Gore, Corporate Greenwasher? [1]
Submitted by John Stauber [2] on
Is Al Gore [3] aiding and abetting the world's largest greenwashers [4]? The New York Times reports that "The brightest lights in the advertising business are gathering in Cannes, France, this week for an annual celebration. ... Mr. Gore is being accorded rock star status at the festival. ... The embrace of Mr. Gore shows how 'green' advertising has galvanized the marketing community. 'The consumer sentiment out there is just palpable,' said Hamish McLennan, chief executive of Young & Rubicam [5], the advertising agency that arranged Mr. Gore's visit to Cannes and helped him to develop the Save Our Selves (SOS [6]) campaign for environmental awareness. ... Not long ago, it seemed, only oil companies touted their environmental credentials [7] via big-budget advertising campaigns. But now green advertising is everywhere. ... The idea that consumers can continue to consume, making tiny changes in their behavior, is attractive to marketers, too. Not only can they keep promoting consumption, they can turn greenness into a selling point."