2008 Woodie Awards
Packaging makes being green easy
Jill Reddish
Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: Opinion
In this day and age, we are a visual culture. Movies dazzle with visuals rather than through their script. We look at packaging colors rather than reading the words on the label. Our world is becoming more color-coded every day. How else do we identify what products are "green" and good for the earth when they cannot all actually be the color green?
From laundry detergent to sheets made from bamboo, more and more products are going green, and they need to show it off.
To help supply the growing demand for "green" products, we have developed certain recognizable shades of olive green and khaki to quickly let the consumer know that the product about to be bought has cut down not a twig in the rainforest, nor burned a mountain of coal to create it, nor beaten up a subsistence farmer in Central America to make it.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (called The Past), it used to be that we got our information about products from the words on the label.
Today we demand the ability to go down the aisle in the grocery store and spot our product from twenty feet away by the color. First, colors began going bold and bright, but now, especially with the eco-friendly products, packaging colors went the opposite way and are now subtle, understated, neutral and clean. They give you that calm feeling that marketing advisors tell you should come along with buying green products even though they are overpriced.
Now, as much as I may poke fun at how much marketing affects our lives (without actually being a marketing major, mind you), I actually appreciate it. It is actually nice to be able to find products I want quickly and without having to stand and examine labels. Those five seconds or so are very valuable and could even add up to a whole 30 extra seconds that I could stand in the check-out line marveling at the latest antics of Britney Spears. But I do have two questions:
1) What will happen when all products are green and eco-friendly? What will the packaging look like then? What if a product is still eco-friendly but goes back to the bright and bold packaging before other products do? Won't people be confused about whether or not it's eco-friendly if it doesn't look like it is?
2) Why do eco-friendly clothes have to look like they're eco-friendly? I mean, really, have you seen these new lines? Khakis, olive greens, browns, tea-stained, even undyed colors - it looks like people are going on safari. Last time I checked ("Mean Girls" not withstanding), it's not actually a jungle out there. We don't have to look all-natural to be all-natural. Besides, we already did the hippie look - twice.
It shouldn't be trendy or cool to be green. Eco-friendly products shouldn't have to have a high-class brand name stamped on them for you to use them. It shouldn't cost an arm and a leg to not hurt the environment. Green should be the every-day norm. Maybe one day it will be. So when are we going to move past the need to show off that we are "green" and just be green?
From laundry detergent to sheets made from bamboo, more and more products are going green, and they need to show it off.
To help supply the growing demand for "green" products, we have developed certain recognizable shades of olive green and khaki to quickly let the consumer know that the product about to be bought has cut down not a twig in the rainforest, nor burned a mountain of coal to create it, nor beaten up a subsistence farmer in Central America to make it.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (called The Past), it used to be that we got our information about products from the words on the label.
Today we demand the ability to go down the aisle in the grocery store and spot our product from twenty feet away by the color. First, colors began going bold and bright, but now, especially with the eco-friendly products, packaging colors went the opposite way and are now subtle, understated, neutral and clean. They give you that calm feeling that marketing advisors tell you should come along with buying green products even though they are overpriced.
Now, as much as I may poke fun at how much marketing affects our lives (without actually being a marketing major, mind you), I actually appreciate it. It is actually nice to be able to find products I want quickly and without having to stand and examine labels. Those five seconds or so are very valuable and could even add up to a whole 30 extra seconds that I could stand in the check-out line marveling at the latest antics of Britney Spears. But I do have two questions:
1) What will happen when all products are green and eco-friendly? What will the packaging look like then? What if a product is still eco-friendly but goes back to the bright and bold packaging before other products do? Won't people be confused about whether or not it's eco-friendly if it doesn't look like it is?
2) Why do eco-friendly clothes have to look like they're eco-friendly? I mean, really, have you seen these new lines? Khakis, olive greens, browns, tea-stained, even undyed colors - it looks like people are going on safari. Last time I checked ("Mean Girls" not withstanding), it's not actually a jungle out there. We don't have to look all-natural to be all-natural. Besides, we already did the hippie look - twice.
It shouldn't be trendy or cool to be green. Eco-friendly products shouldn't have to have a high-class brand name stamped on them for you to use them. It shouldn't cost an arm and a leg to not hurt the environment. Green should be the every-day norm. Maybe one day it will be. So when are we going to move past the need to show off that we are "green" and just be green?
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