For big corporations and small businesses alike, ‘green’ has become the new ‘black’ in consumer product marketing. And luckily for them, this eco-friendly revolution has brought many a follower to their doors. Seems every few years, the marketing industry decides what the ‘in’ fabric, service, idea, trend or fashion is going to be, and we buy it. Literally. Whether we know better or not, we give into the hype and join the wave of folks just like us who were born originals yet live our lives as copies of whatever the mass media dictates. I mean, who wants to be different anyway right? An idea is cultivated, a desire is imbedded, and a demand is made for more. The demand raises the value, the value raises the price, next thing you know we are spending $50 for a pair of eco-friendly reconstructed jeans that look just like the patched up jeans our mothers sewed together from some old denim in her fabric bin the year before for free.
There was a time not long ago when it wasn’t cool to do half the things that being ‘green’ permits us to do now. What once was a somewhat shameful visit to the Goodwill to spend $20 for used clothing to carry us through the school year as children, is now seen as a resourceful and conscientious way to purchase overpriced ‘vintage’ clothing while at the same time, playing our part in helping to sustain Mother Earth and the fragile resources we depend on for our own life. Once hand-me-downs are now considered ‘recycled’ goods, and the hidden treasures we shamefully took from off our neighbors curbside on trash day are now considered ‘reclaimed’ materials that are ‘rescued’ and refurbished as a new product. One mans trash, now one mans treasure worth hundreds because of a marketing label.
As a business woman myself, I can appreciate this consumer product marketing game and all the responses that come with it. Afterall, in another year or two we will be on to something new and the cycle will repeat itself again. As a consumer, I carry the frustrations of being able to see past the ‘go green marketing guise’, yet being somewhat forced to pay for a label that means so little to me. Am I all about taking part in the kind of practices as a human that will not result in the permanent damage and depletion of our environment, resources and creatures for generations to come? Of course I am. Am I an active participant in the movement that cultivates a oneness with all living things? Definitely. But just don’t ask me to hand over my hard-earned money as proof of that because I was doing the eco-friendly thing long before it became the thing to do, and so were many of us.
