Green Marketing - Arrowhead needs to rethink what "Eco" means

I thought this was an ironic product marketing approach from Arrowhead, makers of bottled water and 82 metric tons of landfill plastics. They are now selling their water in "Eco-Shape Bottles." On the back of the bottle, it reads: "Our bottle looks and feels different because it is purposefully designed with an average of 30% less plastic to be easier on the environment. We can all make a difference, please recycle." I will grant anyone who says I'm negative that they are right. But really, Arrowhead telling me to recycle is like a heroin dealer telling one of his junkies, "you know, you really ought to cut down a bit." It's the "30% less plastic" part that is ironic. Like any marketing campaign, they are doing this to get people to buy more water, right? So if they are successful with this, won't they be dumping more plastic into landfills? If I buy four times as much water because I'm so pleased with their new environmentally safe bottles, then the bottles backfire and together we're dumping more plastic in the ground. My point is, if you can't either alter the conversation about their non-biodegradable bottles, half measures won't work with people who are environmentally conscious. The average consumer might go for this, but the average consumer didn't care about the last batch of bottles that had so much more plastic in them. So nothing is really gained by having less plastic bottles, since the point is only to get people to keep buying the things. McDonald's had the same problem 20 years ago when they still had styrofoam containers. They did eventually get rid of the containers completely. But before that they tried a re-education campaign, telling customers how their styrofoam boxes weren't really so bad. The campaign was so successful, and their consumers so gullible, that they no longer have styrofoam boxes. The only technical solution for Arrowhead would be to tell people either carry around your own water bottle and refill it, or get a drink before you leave the house.

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)