Have you tried many of these “green” products out there? The cleaners, the lightbulbs, the hybrid cars, and all the other end a round products intended to reduce your output of non-green/bad for the environment stuff…
I have.
Most of these products suck.
Dishes take 3 times to clean in the dishwasher. Clothes still smell after 2 washes. Hybrids can’t haul your stores groceries from the distribution centers to your shelves. The lights barely can light a room and will poison you if you break them.
Are these just “beta products” that we’ll figure out and improve… or is that what green is? A label on a watered down product that gets you to consume more energy, but in non obvious ways.
God, the Green Movements marketing ROCKS!
Concerned about the well being of humankind? Try improving health care and wellness. We’re bound to save more lives by improving health care than curbing the heating of the earth 100 years from now (yes, go to Wikipedia or your information source of choice to find out how much this “greening” effort is actually going to help stall warming, save the planet, save mankind…). How can so many people get fired up about Saving the Planet but can’t get fired up about Health Care Reform?
Yeah, it’s the marketing. Yeah, it’s our history of behavior. Yes, it’s what we have come to value. Or rather, what it costs us to “feel like we’re making a difference.” That’s one of the key things about the Green Movement that other social movements haven’t figured out – how to make people feel like they are making a difference even when all they do is buy a different brand. Health care, education and peace movements all require too much effort from an individual on a topic/issue/situation that may not directly, daily impact them. The requirements pushed out by the leading organizations behind the non-Green issues are too high for what people get out of them. Today.
Consider this quip for fun…
Global Warming gets blockbuster movies like The Day After Tomorrow to scare everyone into greening up.
Health Care gets SiCKO.
I’ve seen SiCKO once, and my family is in it.
I’ve seen Day After Tomorrow 4 times, once without audio on a plane.
Global Warming gets 100 websites, social networks, Global Rock Concerts, CurrenTV.
Health care gets… some brochure-ware websites and some old congressmen.
I can go to the store and buy a Green Friendly lightbulb to Save The Planet. I can fight with Aetna for two years to reduce my premium on preventative care.
If health care reformers want to make an impact now, they need to figure out the marketing. Make it immediate, make it now, make it reinforcing, and make it easy. And don’t forget the sex appeal, afterall Global Warmings coverboy is Al Gore.
~R
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