But It Says It's Good For Me!

Do you believe everything you hear? Probably not, right?  I don’t either.  We’ve all had our share of “fish tales” told to us and we know there is some bit of truth mixed in there someplace but the real truth has got all muddled up in “the story”.

There is no place this is more prevalent than in mass marketing.

I mean really, do you think if you use a certain makeup that you saw an ad for that you will be instantly transformed into a super model?  Did you really believe that cat toy would keep your kitty occupied for hours and hours? (And if you act now – we’ll send you not one but two!) For the record, no I did not buy it but I have no doubt in my mind that my cat would have it destroyed within mere minutes of it hitting the ground!

I hate marketing ads. There.  I said it. Not that some ads are great for their entertainment value (I am a sucker for the Budweiser Clydesdale commercials and any thing with animals!) but I really think that the marketing world believes us to be total idiots sometimes.  Or maybe not.  Maybe they are extremely gifted in human psychology.  I have to admit, I have fallen prey more than once to the perfect ad that “speaks” to me so much that I run out and have to try the product.  Most of the time it is only to be disappointed in the actual product.

So why is this relevant on my eco-friendly blog? With “green” being the “new black” as they say, more and more companies are scrambling to get their share of the green marketplace.  The marketers cleverly use “natural” and “green” type phrases in their advertising to give you the illusion you are actually getting a product that is better for you and the environment…but it’s really not!

In print ads, they even use more and more green colors and nature pictures like trees and things so your brain is tricked into thinking that the product is eco-friendly.  They don’t necessarily claim to be – but your mind sees the pictures and makes an assumption.

Perfect example – A woman walks through the front door after a long hard day at work and schlepping the kids around from place to place.  She’s clearly exhausted. As she walks into the room she takes a deep breath and aaaahhhhhh….the room becomes a meadow full of fragrant flowers. The sun is shining.  The is not a care in the world because she has now been transported by her sense of smell to her happy place.  This ad has sold millions of dollars worth of product for this company.

Let’s get the “real” picture.  Same woman walks through the door, same scenario. But this time, as she takes her deep breath, we are zeroed in to her internal body organs.  Let’s start with the lungs.  As she breathes in the “scent of wild flowers” her lungs convulse.  After all, one of the main ingredients in the air freshener are “terpenes” – chemicals that when mixed with naturally occurring ozone in the room can create a by-product that is highly carcinogenic – formaldehyde. Add this to the synthetic musk’s found in the product that are known hormone disruptors.  On top of that, they enter the body and get into the blood stream and can be highly toxic to babies.  It commonly shows up in breast milk.  Did you know that the average number of toxins found in a newborn baby is greater than 280?! (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/health/babies-are-polluted-at-birth-new-report-says/625/)

This is just one example.  But it gets worse!  Then there are the ads for the products that these big companies have come up with for the “green marketplace”. Household cleaners that are “better for you and the environment”, skin crèmes that are “less toxic” for you, food that is “cleaner”.  It goes on and on with no end in sight!

The phenomenon actually has a name now – GREENWASHING.

Green-wash (green’wash’, -wôsh’) – verb: the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.

It’s real and it’s scary.  People are being led to believe they are making better choices when they are really not.

So what can you do as a consumer?  READ LABELS! If there is something on the label you cannot pronounce or has “sulfate”, “paraben”, “benzenes”,  “methyl” or any other ominous sounding ingredient – it is probably not good for you!  This is a pretty good list of common chemicals and their effects on humans – http://www.mcsbeaconofhope.com/42_common_toxic_chemicals_and_th.htm.

We’ll get into the food side of things in another blog!  That is it’s own monster!

There are some really good, really eco-friendly companies out there.  You just need to do your homework.  Research.  Understand what you are putting into you and your family and the effects it has on your body.  Why has instances of many diseases gone up?  Why did the autism numbers go from 1 in 121 to 1 in 88?   Why do we need to give kids drugs for hyperactivity? Take a look around and really take a look at the list of toxins and you may see there is a correlation.