GreenWash Alert! Deer Park Print Ad

A new print ad for Deer Park water appalled me so much that I ripped it out of my Real Simple magazine and turned it into a paper airplane (hence the crease marks). Before I tell you why its classic greenwash, I want to say I truly applaud Deer Park for implementing eco-bottles. However, it seems to be a blatant case of greenwash to POSITION the product as being good for the environment. Deer Park should tout its eco-bottle, but it shouldn't suggest that its good for the environment. They should sell the water, not the the environmental friendliness of the packaging.

The ad violates two classic greenwash tactics, as defined by Greenpeace's Greenwash Criteria:

1) Dirty Business- This ad touts bottled water as a source of environmental reduction! Yet, we all know that the core business is inherently polluting and unsustainable.

and

2) Ad Bluster - This ad and PR campaign exaggerates and misrepresents an environmental achievement in order to divert attention away from environmental problems of bottled water. There is nothing about bottled water, other than eliminating the product category, that will truly reduce the impact on the environment.

What's the lesson to be learned?

Businesses and marketing folks need to be HONEST about what they are selling. When you make an eco-advancement you should shout about it. But you should not use it to misrepresent, mislead or divert. As consumers who care about real environmental impact reduction, we need to resist this type of advertising because, as aptly put by Business Ethics, greenwash diminishes the value of legitimate corporate environmental successes and ultimately results in consumer and regulatory complacency. And that ain't good.