Blamblog - Brett Lamb's Blog

Monday, March 16, 2009

The Earth Hour Corporate Greenwash, Pt. 2

As we get closer to the date, I've seen more and more people spreading 'awareness' about Earth Hour. You would assume that it's "awareness" about environment issues -- and not just awareness about awareness -- so I went to the Earth Hour website to find out more.

There is actually NO CONTENT about useful things you can do for the environment on the Earth Hour website. Not a single thing ... unless you count turning out the lights for an hour at the end of March. The website does offer product placements. Corporations receive mention for token gestures. Did you know that Coke is shutting off its billboard in Times Square for an hour? Wow, that must be a real sacrifice.

Instead you are encouraged to spread nebulous "awareness" of the Earth Hour brand, linked loosely to global warming as though climate change is the only issue facing the world. If you click on the "Take Action" link, you are directed to a page that encourages you to spread "awareness" on your mobile phone and even has a special partnership with Blackberry and includes their logo.

No mention of the fact that consumer electronics are a major source of pollution, since they contain all sorts of toxins that are released into the environment when someone tosses their obsolete phone or ipod after a year or two of use. Earth Hour could be used to challenge people to use their out-of-date gadgets for an additional year or to challenge companies to stop making disposable gadgets and, instead, make gadgets that can be used longer and upgraded .... but Blackberry might not like that, especially during hard economic times.

Earth Hour could also help raise awareness of the damage caused by the fast food industry and challenge people to avoid fast food from now on ... but McDonalds is turning off a fryer somewhere, so it's probably better to sidestep that issue as well. As mentioned in the earlier post, Coke has their logo on the Earth Hour tv ads, so the campaign isn't going to be taking on bottled water or Coke's other water issues.

What about the average suburban lawn and the environment damage caused by all that grass? Well, not a peep from "Earth Hour".

It amazing that so many people can channel so much energy into an "awareness"-raising exercise that, in fact, is unable to create any substantial awareness of real issues because of its commitments to big money.

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