Greenwashing
Something made Ms. Severson uneasy when she dropped a box of gluten-free EnviroKidz organic Koala Crisp cereal in her shopping cart. But it’s hard to suspect a cartoon koala, so she moved on. However, Ms. Severson goes on to say that wheat sheaf by wheat sheaf, sunrise by sunrise, the grocery store shelves had been greenwashed. Greenwashing describes a pervasive genre of packaging designed to make sure that manufacturers grab their slice of the $25 billion that American shoppers spend each year on natural or organic food.
As a design shorthand, it makes subtle use of specific colors, images, typefaces and the promise of what marketers call “an authentic narrative” to sell food. Especially in recent years, greenwashing has spilled out well past the organic section of the grocery store. Even the snack aisle at the gas station isn’t immune. Paula Scher, a partner in Pentagram, an international design firm, was quoted as saying, “Somebody becomes successful with a specific point of view, and the consumer begins to identify with it and it spreads like a virus.”
Buy a greenwashed product and you’re supposedly buying a specific set of healthy environmental and socially correct values. If the package does its work, then the food inside doesn’t actually have to be organic, only organic-ish. The right cues on a package free mass-market consumers from doing any homework, said Elizabeth Talerman, a branding analyst. They can assume that a group she calls the green elite - those early adopters who pushed for organic food laws and who helped make Whole Foods markets a success - have done the work for them. Earth’s Best, a baby and toddler food company, offers a delicious example. Its whole grain rice cereal features two babies working the rice fields. One is white and one is black. A sign that looks hand-hewn declares “No GMO’s.” There is a barn, a butterfly and a typeface that could have come from the back room of a general store. Having established a design paradigm that succeeds in selling food that is often more expensive than conventional groceries, the design world should perhaps rejoice. This is not the case. Some top brand and package designers find the cartoonish animals and bad hippie typefaces as grating as a self-righteous vegan at a barbecue. Caren Wilcox, executive director of the Organic Trade Association, was quoted as saying, “It’s the halo effect. That’s why we encourage consumers to look for the U.S.D.A. organic seal.” But even the organic seal doesn’t necessarily offer assurances that the item is produced in a way that jibes with consumer expectations for something that comes in a greenwashed package. (New York Times, 1/3/07).
