This is an excellent post that highlights the implications of green advertising for both business marketers and consumers. As an undergraduate business student with an emphasis on corporate social responsibility, it is interesting to see role marketing plays in shaping positive impacts on society. While marketing has always been an important facet of businesses, the emerging shift in consumer sentiment towards more sustainable products brings this subject to the forefront of corporate discourse and planning. The problem, however, is that many green advertisements–persuasive as they may be–are illegitimate. Fueled primarily by profits, businesses sometimes engage in “greenwashing” to attract and mislead uninformed customers into buying their products. Aside from instances where these incidents are easily recognizable, how do you suggest consumers protect themselves from falling victim to these claims? I agree with your point that government agencies like the Federal Trade Commission can help increase consumer consciousness, but I am curious to know what other measures customers can take on an individual, micro-level in order to both thwart repeat offenders and make better purchasing decisions.

The reason the recent rise in green marketing is so concerning is because greenwashing seems to be increasing right along with it. According to the 2010 “Greenwashing Report” by TerraChoice, of the 2,000-plus products in the U.S. and Canada advertised as green, 98 percent were found to have committed one of the organization’s “Seven Sins of Greenwashing,” including making vague, irrelevant or fabricated claims. Most troubling to me is that even if consumers understand the terminology used by marketers, how can they prove the falsity of various claims? I strongly believe that the only sustainable solution to this problem is leveraging the use of unbiased third party certification. Similar to food labels that signify dietary restrictions, such as the OU symbol for Kosher foods, commercials and advertising campaigns should be held to the highest ethical standards for transparency. Do you think similar seals for consumer goods are a viable action-plan to pursue? Although environmental awareness entities, such as Greenpeace, have proven to successfully alter various companies’ practices, change efforts should focus on prevention. Would you agree that groups aiming to inform the public about marketing malpractice would benefit from allocating resources more towards government regulation, sanctions, and certification standardization as a means of achieving this goal? Or do you think that educating consumers on the realities of green marketing and allowing them to choose for themselves is sufficient? Perhaps a combination of both would yield the best results. With environmental sustainability making significant headway, something beyond teaching buyers how to decipher marketing jargon is necessary to sustain ethics and transparency in the sale of consumer goods.