Posting June, 2008: Truth In (Green) Advertising It seems that every month or so I get email about another study finding consumers are wary of "green marketing" claims. On April 30, the Federal Trade Commission held a workshop (actually the second in a series of workshops) to update its Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims in an attempt to take hold of the problem. While the FTC's 'Green Guides,' as they are called, focus primarily on claims placed on consumer packaging, public annoyance with questionable environmental claims is broader. It seems that nearly every marketer is trying to jump on the 'save the earth' band wagon... sometimes with an ironic twist. My telecom provider, Verizon, has been placing a green message on the outside of its customer invoice envelopes. Verizon asks you to "help the environment with paperless statements," i.e., Verizon wants you to pay your bill online. I think it is wonderful that Verizon is concerned about the environment and saving trees and energy. Perhaps a great place for the telecom giant to begin its noble quest is to eliminate all the unwanted junk mail it sends me about its new fiber optice service (FIOS) or consolidating my phone, TV and Internet providers into just one - Verizon. I wonder how many trees are losing their lives... how many barrels of Saudi Arabian crude are consumed... as Verizon tries to convince us through a flood of unwelcomed envelopes to spend more money with them. To be fair, Verizon is not alone in this irony; my bank does the same thing. It encourages me to do my banking online, which it also claims saves paper and helps the environment. But every couple of weeks I get an unwanted envelope containing "checks" to transfer credit card balances to their bank... or perhaps just go out and consume (buy) something... anything. I guess life could be crueler. Imagine the environmental insult of getting tons of junk mail from a tree removal service! I'm all for conserving trees and energy, but let's be honest. If you want to trim expenses - save on invoice printing and postage costs... and paying employees to process paper payments - don't hide your motive behind an environmental smokescreen. Until we use environmental claims honestly, green marketing will continue to be greeted with skepticism. I’m Bruce Popka, and I’m a little green around the edges. ('Hope my phone service doesn't "accidentally" become disconnected!) You can email Bruce with your comments at bruce@raymond.com.