Green commercials are becoming more popular, and companies are jumping on the bandwagon with the idea of making a more environmentally friendly product. Attached are two Sun Chips commercials, one we watched in class and another that also introduces the compostable chip bag. What frustrates me most about the commercial we watched in class is the covering of trash, not picking it up. It shows how we are not willing to accept the duty of doing the hard things, maybe like picking up trash. It also shows me that Sun Chips is trying to put this larger problem, into a much smaller unrealistic solution. Sun Chips is merely trying to make people feel better about buying their product.
This commercial gives people the sense that throwing this bag away is a good way to get rid of it. How many people who finish a bag of chips will bother to take it to their local compost center? It frustrates me because Sun Chips is trying to entice consumers to buy their product because they are taking a small step in making our world greener, when it isn’t. That word ‘green’ gets thrown around so much these days, so I wanted to know what Sun Chips current view of a green planet is, what they are trying to do about the world’s problems. In the second video I’ve linked there is a website that comes up at the end, which when visited, directs to a different page. So after a quick Google search on the sun chips green effect initiative, I found out that their plan, along with many other companies, is to make slight changes to their products, that consumers can buy in to. Like purchasing a compostable bag.
Companies should be focusing more on doing the hard things, like taking a bigger look at the way they make their products and how much energy is consumed in the process. Sun Chips might come up with a green initiative inside the company, one that consumers can’t see. What I’m trying to get at is that these commercials make it seem like the way to make this a better planet, one that our kids and grandkids can enjoy just as much as we do, is to buy something. This is completely the wrong approach, and people need to realize that buying our way out is not the solution. But what IS the solution?!??! Damn, if it was as easy as commercials make it seem, we wouldn’t be in as deep a mess as we are. I guess what we have to do as consumers is just take it as another marketing scheme, and if we truly are trying to make smarter decisions as consumers, gain the knowledge it takes and only support the companies that are really trying to make a difference, inside and out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu5J5HQk6VY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHZRJpeOe8w&feature=player_embedded
I have to agree with you, Sam. I’m not sure if you know about this but there’s also a term for what Sun Chips is doing through the commercial and selling their compostable bags of chips: greenwashing. I learned the word from an Environmental Science course last winter at SOU. Basically, it is like you said, they are advertising that buying their product is better than the rest because it is not harmful or as harmful to the environment. Again, like you said, it is a marketing scheme and I agree that companies like Sun Chips should take steps to reducing harm to environment within their company and not placing the responsibility on the consumers.
Thanks for touching on some really good points Sam. I liked that you mentioned how easy commercial’s make being “green” seem. What also bother’s me about this new wave of “green” commercials is an underlying psychology of guilt. Environmentally minded individuals, myself included, who have a sense of foreboding and guilt about the state of the environment are the primary target. “If you buy our product, you’ll feel less guilty. You’ll be doing your small part in saving the planet.” This logic is atrocious because over consumption and consumerism, like you said, is at the heart of the problem. And no amount of purchases are going to fill the guilt many of us carry regarding the environment.
You are precise Sam. This has always bothered me about the Sun Chips as well as its Noise! But besides that, how many people are actually going to go to the compost center? I can see where Sun Chips was trying to go with this, but really it was just another ploy for the company to use the audience’s emotion to manipulate them into buying another product. They really are just trying to sell another product not help the environment. I think you are right about the production process as well. Companies should look into how much energy it takes to produce a good rather than trying so hard to make the product green.