It Grows On Trees

Gettin' Hammered, Savin' Planets

Now here's an intoxicating brand: Prairie Vodka.

It's sexy. It's organic. It's even kosher. And even though 900 Minnesotan farmers make it in a cooperative effort, this is one yuppie libation. Okay maybe not yuppie — but the brand certainly targets an up-market demo.

(Note to ethanol critics: see, corn spirits really are good for the planet!)

The year-old vodka brand, part of the Phillips family of spirits, is one of many premium eco-groovy alcohols to hit the market recently, including Eco 360, Square One, Juniper Green, and Caprock. 

We have a special love for Prairie, not only because it is made with organic corn grown and distilled in our backyard, but because it is far and away the coolest brand of the bunch. Props to Minneapolis's Olson for its deliciously refreshing work, with a slightly pear nose and pop-rock finish.

But at $25 retail and $68 delivered, could this be another brand that reinforces some of the problems with green marketing — too expensive, too out of reach for ordinary consumers, a great idea but not practical for the average lush?

Hat tip to MTV Switch.

Pants For Plants: Levis Eco-Jeans

As a category, "organic" has been around for what, 20, 30 years? It represents a pretty tidy niche across a wide spectrum of the market: products grown and/or produced according to strict, easy-to-document standards and practices.

Now the Organic Mothership is crashing into the riot of green product whose authenticity is not so easy to certify. Case in point: Levi's Eco Jeans. This visually arresting campaign, by BBH Singapore, manages to adopt that old-school organic cred while pulling off two opposing agendas: pandering to greenmania but not hammering us over the head. Too hard.

But, as one commenter at copyranter noted,

Leaving aside the fact that "organic" can mean all kinds of things that are far from environmentally friendly, they're still presumably made in Chinese factories, no doubt belching out solid coal plumes filled with lead and arsenic and kryptonite.

But this post is as much about the coming backlash to green, which, of course, is starting with the insiders of the ad world. Hilarious post and string of links to check out at copyranter:

My first impression of these ads—other than that they were beautifully designed—was that they offered a vision of our not-to-distant future: all of us humans dead and gone with weeds growing through our trendy, not-yet-disintegrated eco-clothing.

via ads of the world.

My Mom Gets The Last Word on Green Works

To me, the Clorox logo on the Green Works package says "bleach." And with that comes the all the secondary baggage: "industrial," "old school," "me-too," "toxic" and "pandering."

To my mom, the Clorox logo on the Green Works Package says "effective."

No lie, ladies and gentlemen, it was the first thing she said when I asked. And this is coming from a lady who has forgotten more about keeping house than I have yet to discover.

So what the hell do I know?

Okay  maybe, just maybe, Clorox/Green Works is on to something. Could it be they are right to focus on the market segment that is less concerned about environmentalism and more concerned about "effective?" Yes, according to Joel Makower. And Honestly, I'm all right with that.

Treehugger has a fairly balance assessment of the significance of the product line's entry into the market, one that somewhat justifies the placement of the Clorox logo. This observation from industry innovator Seventh Generation is most salient:

Seventh Generation CEO Jeffrey Hollender summed it up pretty well: "New competitors will only help this category grow faster than it's been growing. The question is, do you want a big piece of a small pie or a small piece of a big pie? We absolutely want the pie to be as big as possible, even if we have a smaller slice. ... To address problems environmentally, we need to get other businesses involved."

That said, I still stand behind my observation: the Clorox logo can't carry the Green Works identity forever. I just don't believe the bold badge logo will be able to compensate long-term for a middlin' Green Works mark. I wish the company had been more aggressive with the latter; if Clorox is so strong a mark that its appearance on the package solidifies my mom's trust, then they could have/should have leveraged its equity in a brand and package that would win over the rest of us.

From the Mouths of Babes and the Pockets of BP

More leadership in green communications from BP, which is leveraging the power of social media to get people's hands on their brand. This time it's in the form of a microsite called alittlebettergasstation.com. 

Clearly targeted toward a younger demo, the site features a fun little messaging tool called "Baby Mail." Nothing like a cute little toddler avatar to make a Big Oil company seem a little more cuddly. It's unfortunate that the company has more than a few gremlins that aren't so darling, but you won't see them on this site.

Few in energy communications are as good at the greenwash as BP, but quite frankly, they're blazing trail that companies in clean tech ought to pay very close attention to. It's flat out great work.

The Baby Mail application is almost identical to the Monk-e-Mail  developed almost two years ago by careerbuilder.com, except you can't send an original note but have to choose from a handful of canned messages.

On the other hand, you can copy and embed your message as I have here. That should tell you how clear the creators of the site are about creating a new media campaign for today's broadband-enabled consumer — who, the way, isn't necessarily a 20-something college kid.

I'd like to see recycling, wind, biofuel, solar and green building companies do this kind of work. And by the way, if BP wants a LOT better gas station, it should make it easier for consumer to choose biofuels at the pump.

Sex Sells (Even Green)

The sauciest green ad ever?

I love, love, love what Method does to sell soap. This one takes it up a level (a mile?): these are stills grabbed from a motion picture online ad for Method's "wood for good" floor cleaner, found at treehugger.com

Is Green is the New Atkins?

Monday's New York Times article on the me-too rush to claim eco-cred at retail brings up some important questions: when does a product earn the green badge -- and who decides?

The highly entertaining piece details the silliness in some of the 60,000 products bidding for the Home Depot's new "Eco Options" program: plastic-handled paint brushes hawked as eco-friendly because the weren't made from trees; wood-handled painted brushes shilled because they weren't made of plastic.

Is it possible that green is in the eye of the beholder? Or is it just that sometimes green is gray?

The best brand managers and advertisers know that any brand experience they create must come from a truth in a company's practices and people. If a company can reasonably show its commitment to environmentally forward practices in the way it makes, packages or distributes its products or services, can't it claim green cred, even if those practices are eco-imperfect?

Take Toyota, for instance, maker of the eco-darling Prius. As the largest car manufacturer in the world, they help pump far more more CO2 into the atmosphere than its Prius can claim to withold. Should we be cynical about the Prius? Or should we praise it as a good start for a very complex problem? Can GE's ecomagination make up for all its environmental sins of the past? Or does it merit a closer look by virtue of its leadership from the top of the Fortune 500?

The answer isn't "yes and no." The answer is to quit expecting a silver bullets. To the extent companies and products (not to mention you and me) make incrementally smaller impacts on the environment in the course of doing business, that's a good thing. And that's something marketers can and should take to market. The trick is to back up claims with reasonable, credible evidence.

Of the 60,000 proudcts they revied, for instance, the leaders of Home Depot's Eco Options program only accepted 2,500.

What worries me is less that green can be gray and more that green could be the new Atkins. As a rule, me-too marketing is shackled by the law of diminishing returns. And when the returns start to tank, the prentenders have a way of taking others down with them.