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My Bad! Mama Earth Unhappy with Marketing
The Olympic Torch is probably feeling burned out right now. A jaunt around the globe sounds romantic, but not with thousands of protesters dogging you. Plus, it's hard to get 'fired up' with folks checking your carbon. Here, Slate.com analyzes the Torch's green credentials ... http://www.slate.com/id/2188876/Reading the report, it dawned on me: this isn't a Torch issue, this is a call-to-action for the entire marketing industry. For a long time, we've made hay with the grand goodwill gesture. Often this involves sending some special something-or-other and attendant VIPs traveling around a state, a country, the world. That's understandable; tours and events can be effective ways to get out a message.
Four years ago, I played a big role in launching a p.r. tour that helped a lot of people. I'm still proud of that, but today I know that any message, any gesture will be measured against its environmental impact. Four years ago, I didn't give that a second thought, unfortunately. Today, I'd look at buying carbon credits to off-set the impact of my p.r. barnstorm or at going completely virtual with it.
There are lots of viable options, but ignoring the dilemmas and trade-offs isn't one of them. And the grand goodwill tour is just one of the classic tactics we marketing folks need to wrestle with. Just check out all the paper that goes into an annual report!
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