Arnold on ethical marketing

CHRIS ARNOLD

S&S LA have created a great campaign to highlight beach pollution in America. Consumers are doing more green talking than walking. And what’s the difference between organic and sustainable cotton?

As part of a campaign for the Surfrider Campaign, staff at Saatchi & Saatchi LA have been up early to collect up all the rubbish on Venice Beach (hard life compared to London), pack it into styrofoam dishes like seafood and place them in farmers markets with the label CATCH OF THE DAY on. Beautifully packaged cigarette buts, condoms and other trash certainly drive the point home.

They have also been building sand sculptures of sea animals and highlighting that the sand sculptures are disappearing as fast as the real thing. When collapsed a buried sign is revealed with the line on, "Pollution and beach development are destroying marine life. This quickly."

A recent survey by TNS reveals that Americans would pay more for green products, well that’s what 53% of US consumers say. But those of us who work in the ethical marketing arena know there’s a big difference between the talk and the walk. Only 19% were really concerned with a company’s greenness.

Another survey carried out in Europe for a major shoe brand was equally revealing. Woman who claimed to be highly interested in buying ethical shoes ended up opting for fashion first (what a surprise). By contrast men were more inclined to buy ethical foot ware than they claimed in the survey.

The challenge to brands is to convert the intent into action.

Conscientious consumers are having to face a few dilemmas about ethical cotton, a market that is exploding and now worth over £1bn. What is the difference between organic and sustainable? To many consumers it sounds the same but using the phrase sustainable has been banned in ads in the UK because it’s misleading and dubbed a greenwash term

Most organic cotton comes from Turkey, China and India, but a few critics suspect there’s more organic cotton sold than produced. So consumers are advised to stick to major brands, like Nike, Wal-Mart, Woolworths, M&S and H&M, all users of real organic cotton.

A recent report reveals that we throw away up to 25% of what we buy in packaging and food that goes past its sell by date. WRAP have been running a campaign to try and encourage people to be less wasteful. It’s claimed we waste up to £10bn worth a year, that’s over £600 per average family household.

After going through thousands of bin bags (I think I’d prefer the beach job myself), they concluded we were throwing away about 4.4 million apples, 1.6 million bananas, 660,000 eggs, 550 chickens, 300,000 packets of crisps and 440,000 ready meals (I imagine most of the ready meals were thrown after one spoonful if the last one I bought was anything to go by).

Anyone thinking of setting up an ad agency (to sell to Proton or Engine) may do better launching an ethical drink. Pepsi just bought V Water for an estimated £10m, not bad when you consider it only started just  4 years ago.

And finally, to the world of retail -  the Competition Commission has just published its final report in its inquiry into UK groceries retailing, Wholefoods are looking to open stores in Manchester and Birmingham and good old green M&S have taken the plunge and started to charge for carrier bags.