Sunday, November 11, 2007

Growing Green

Going "Green" is the new 'thing to do' among companies these days, and they are saturating our televisions letting us know that they are going green.

The most brow-beating effort of late comes from NBC Universal, which is currently in the midst of its "Green Week," where programs, PSAs, news reports and adverts are themed around the environment. Characters on Days of Our Lives are having a green-washed wedding this week. The Today Show talking heads are reporting from the Arctic Circle, Antarctica and the equator. Even the peacock's feathers are shimmering in shades of green.

Does anyone see this marketing campaign as anything more than green-washing? Perhaps the goal is simply general awareness, but a TV channel as social preacher isn't what most people look for in their television (except maybe Fox News). As I've caught bits and pieces of these green stories on the evening news, all it has elicited in me is a 'so what' and an urge to flip the channel.