Consumers are lectured, attacked and demagogued at every turn these days. We’re supposed to choose paper over plastic bags so we can cut down on waste to landfills. Never mind the trees that were cut down to make the paper. We’re supposed to buy organic food because it’s better for our land and our bodies. Never mind the fact that “sustainable” farming methods generate more erosion/run-off and have no measurable health benefits. We’re supposed to run out and buy the new plug-in electric cars because they have no emissions. Never mind the coal-burning power plants that likely provide the electricity to charge them. And now, as if to push the limits of consumer credulity, we’re being told that we need to opt for real corks in our wine bottles over artificial ones, because not cutting down five million acres of cork trees kills endangered species or something like that. Confused? Me too.
This is from an article titled Screw Cap Wine Blamed For Loss of Forest In New Campaign to Revive Traditional Cork.
It used to be unthinkable to start a dinner party without a satisfying ‘pop’ of the cork. But the popularity of ‘New World’ wines from Australia or America and the convenience of opening a picnic bottle without a corkscrew led to a rise in the popularity of screw caps. Now cork suppliers and environmentalists are fighting back claiming the move is threatening the two million hectares of forest across Portugal, Spain, North Africa and Italy which are sustained through industry management. […] Environmentalists fear that if farmers cannot make money from cork they will replant with non-native eucalyptus trees. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has estimated that up to three quarters of the Mediterranean’s cork forests could be lost within 10 years if the trend for plastic stoppers and screw tops continues. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) have also urged consumers to support the cork forests in order to sustain the huge bird population.
This argument is so ridiculous that it just might sway some of the more passionate (but less intelligent) crusaders out there. And if this campaign proves even moderately successful, how long will it be before American lobbies like the pulp/paper industry engage in their own sophistic sloganeering?
I can see it now – billboards lining the highways as far as the eye can see. In the foreground, there’s a fluffy gray squirrel. In the background, a healthy forest. The caption reads: “This managed forest used to be home to all sorts of creatures, great and small. But thanks to recycling, it’s now a potato farm. We used to care about the little guys. What changed?”
And below that, in large letters, “Check the Label: Natural Wood is Nature.”
The message is implied… You don’t want to kill baby squirrels, do you?
I’m so tired of every purchase being a moral statement. What matters most to consumers should be affordability, utility and quality, at least at first. When a manufacturer pins its reputation on an attribute other than one of those, my BS detector goes full-alert. That said, I must admit that I find this particular marketing campaign amusing.
Wine corks are facing obsolescence, so this is the last gasp of a dying industry. There will always some consumers who prefer the nostalgia of real corks. I have a rotary phone and a hand-wound pocket watch for the same reason. But artificial corks and screw tops simply offer more convenience without sacrificing quality. Seeing the cork industry lash out at its competition is both pathetic and amusing at the same time. It’s kind of like watching the wife’s cats squirm and hiss when she bathes them. They can make all the fuss they want, but we all know how it’s going to end.
With technological innovations rapidly changing the cultural and economic landscape, I think ‘issue-advocacy marketing as a last resort’ will become more prevalent. Who’ll be behind the the next attack campaign? My money is on the manufacturers of 35 MM film. That is, if the makers of VHS tape don’t beat them to it.
Tags: Advo, Advocacy, Environmentalism, Greenwashing, Marketing
