FreeThink: Greenwashing. It has Nothing to do with Dry Cleaning.

FreeThink: a blog published by Maxwell PR

Greenwashing. It has Nothing to do with Dry Cleaning.

When we were putting together our fantastic speaker line-up for this year's Kitchen Conference, an incident occurred that reminded me of just how new the term "greenwashing" is. When describing this year's panels to a potential speaker's booking agency, we caught him off guard when we mentioned greenwashing. We don't want to make fun of the guy, but no, it has nothing to do with "green" laundry practices. And that's my point. The average American is skeptical of which brands and companies to trust with the recent deluge of "green" marketing claims, but they have no idea that this phenomenon has a name: greenwashing. And now it has a Web site.

The recently launched Greenwashing Index lets consumers decide if an ad is telling the truth or is totally bogus. During an entertaining panel at Kitchen, Valerie Davis and Deborah Morrison showed some of the most debated ads on the site right now including a TV spot from the new Sun Chips solar campaign and last year's horrific "Model Miners" ad by GE.

The site is all user-generated, with consumers posting good and bad ads and ranking each on a scale of 1-5. No preaching. No soapboxes. Just good honest discussion about the marketing we are bombarded with every day.

I'm the last person in the world who's going to say we need more marketing jargon and buzzwords polluting our language, but this one feels good. It represents frustration on the part of consumers and it holds companies accountable. The Greenwashing Index is just what we need to sort through this mess.

- Jen Scott

posted on April 30, 2008

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	This spirited, open forum by Maxwell PR staff members, studio mates and colleagues features people who are, in our opinion, doing the right things to get people talking. You'll see us rave about organizations building communities and rant about those who are missing obvious opportunities. We sprinkle in a little marketing and PR rhetoric from time to time for extra vigor and enthusiasm, and will share observations and insight based on our own experience honing our craft every day.

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