If you tell a lie loud enough and long enough, that portion of President Abraham Lincoln’s foolable people will believe that black is white, up is down, war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength and on and on and on.

And when the Ministry of Truth Greener World Media, Earthsense and Survey Sampling International tell you that consumers find Clorox and Walmart to be our greenest companies, then, dab nabbit, it must be true. Two out of the three have Green and Earth in their names don’t they?

From Progressive Grocer:

[T]he Green Confidence Index tracks Americans’ perceptions of companies. Each month it asks, “What company, if any, do you think of as being ‘green’?” This is an unaided question, meaning no list is provided. Respondents simply name companies that are top of mind. Clorox and Wal-Mart garnered the most mentions, followed by (alphabetically) General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, SC Johnson, Toyota and Whole Foods, according to the study. In all, more than 300 companies received at least one mention.

On the surface, an unaided question looks eminently fair. But where it falls flat is that it depends upon top-of-mind awareness which depends upon advertising impressions which, surprise, depends upon billions of dollars poured into television, radio and print to tell sheep consumers that something is so without ever actually having to, you know, be true.

Yes, buyer beware is the watchword, but it is an empty motto.

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 1605 by Jeff Hess and is filed under Advertising, Customer Satisfaction, Environment, Greenwashing, Media, Public Relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.