{"id":244,"date":"2010-03-31T17:22:20","date_gmt":"2010-03-31T21:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/?p=244"},"modified":"2010-03-31T17:22:20","modified_gmt":"2010-03-31T21:22:20","slug":"when-social-marketing-does-more-harm-than-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/?p=244","title":{"rendered":"When “Social Marketing” does more harm than good"},"content":{"rendered":"

My wife, Amy and I were watching TV the other night, and a series of commercials came on that told me a lot about who the sponsors of the show thought I was. First, there was a Pepsi ad for this program they have where they give \u0093grants\u0094 to people with good, community-changing ideas. Second was a Sun Chips commercial touting their new compostable packaging.<\/p>\n

I remarked to Amy about how prevalent this kind of social marketing had become, and did so with no small amount of disdain in my voice, I expect, based on the way she looked at me.<\/p>\n

Basically, it\u0092s popular these days for companies to tout their social responsibility to help persuade you to buy their product. From Sun Chips (owned by junk food giant Frito Lay) to Pepsi, and even Coke with their \u0093every time you drink our sugary, caffeine-laced soda, you\u0092re participating in worldwide recycling\u0094 promotion, everyone wants to get in on the action. Of course, food and beverage manufacturers aren\u0092t the only one\u0092s getting in on the action. Car manufacturers, clothing designers and all manner of retail chains try hard to give you wamr fuzzies about their products.<\/p>\n

On the surface, I know it seems cynical to grumble about companies trying to be socially responsible, even if it only is to better their bottom line. After all, if the result is the same, who cares what their motivation really is, right? But the concern I have hearkens back to my time-tested theory about capitalism at the consumer-level, which is that companies try hard to make us feel good about buying their stuff, and we agree not to ask too many questions, because we\u0092d rather feel good (even if falsely or superficially) about getting what we want rather than doing the hard work of digging deeper for truth and \u0096 God forbid \u0096 maybe having to sacrifice some wants for our ethics.<\/p>\n

First, we should never take a company at their word that what they\u0092re doing is good for us or the planet. As an example, here\u0092s a recent mention about Sun Chips\u0092 installation of a ten-acre field of solar panels to help operate one of their factories, for which they won an \u0093Effie.\u0094 This award, it turns out, is not an environmental award, but rather an \u0093effectiveness in marketing\u0094 recognition. This from Effie\u0092s website<\/a>:<\/p>\n

On Earth Day 2008, Sun Chips\u0092 factory in Modesto, Calif., opened a 10-acre solar grid so that Sun Chips would be made with solar energy. However, the brand\u0092s users were not hard-core green consumers, and they didn\u0092t care to hear about the details. They just wanted to know they were doing something a little better. <\/em><\/p>\n

I\u0092m not saying this move to solar is a bad thing, but there are a few questions I\u0092m left wondering about (though evidently, the marketing folks are clear that the general population doesn\u0092t really care):<\/p>\n

What percentage of the factory\u0092s total consumption is generated by solar?
\nWas this part of a government mandate for communities\/companies to get certain percentages of their energy from renewable sources, or was it voluntary?
\nDoes the company have any standards for their suppliers and the way they grow, harvest and transport their products?<\/p>\n

In short, the idea is to find out if this company seriously is committed to the values they\u0092re promoting, or if it\u0092s simply a photo-op. Before we give ourselves pats on the back for being responsible consumers, we should try to find out.<\/p>\n

Second, and perhaps more important, I have concerns that we allow companies who engage in this kind of social marketing to assuage our guilt for our way of life, allowing us to feel like we\u0092ve done our good deed simply buy buying a soft drink or eating chips. Yes, guiding our dollars to more responsible outlets is an important thing to consider, but this doesn\u0092t let us off the hook as human beings, responsible for the care of ourselves, our fellow human beings and the planet. It\u0092s not unlike how some folks figure they don\u0092t have to work hard at making the world a better place all week long, just because they go to church on Sunday.<\/p>\n

If the companies we support truly are walking the talk, and if we can verify this, more power to them, and more power to us to support their efforts with our money. And if guiding our purchases in such a way is simply a reflection of a greater effort in all parts of our lives to do right by ourselves and our world, that\u0092s great.<\/p>\n

But let\u0092s not fool ourselves; just because we drink Fat Tire instead of Miller Lite or buy our gifts from 10,000 Villages doesn\u0092t mean we don\u0092t have a hell of a lot of work left to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My wife, Amy and I were watching TV the other night, and a series of commercials came on that told me a lot about who the sponsors of the show thought I was. First, there was a Pepsi ad for this program they have where they give \u0093grants\u0094 to people with good, community-changing ideas. Second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,34,28,29,37,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}