Let me tell you about the best and the baddest seller I’ve ever met. Myself. If I can stand for the values of a product, I’m doing such a great job it’s beyond the horizon. If I don’t, well. When I was sixteen I worked three months with telephone marketing. That was when I first noticed that I couldn’t find myself to push bullshit (I would say “sue me” but reminder: it’s nine years ago) onto innocent people. Fraud is not a foreign word in branding and yes, I would call it a fraud if you make your customers believe in your words if the words don’t go deeper than a punk type of font. When it comes to branding and values, the “saving the world” is a little “been there done that did not work on anyone older than 12” which is why “recyclable plastic” or “cruelty free” has been trending. Recyclable plastic is without a doubt better than newly made plastic, but what about bioplast? And cruelty free is great, but does this concerns only the animals or the people working at the workplace as well? Because pardon, I’m thankful that Dumbo’s doing okay but I’d like for Peter Pan to have a safe workplace as well.
I’m truly sorry for breaking a bubble if I do, but The Body Shop is owned by L’Oréal. Anita Roddick is a woman I have the deepest respect for, due to what she started and stands for (among several organisations which she can put on her CV), she is a woman with capital W. On one side, if we shall hear her out, she’s claiming that L’Oréal is developing the sustainable economy and structure that The Body Shop originally holds. L’Oréal has been known for its animal cruelty but hey, they’ve been developing by using green (the color of everything’s fine and sustainability) in Photoshop for advertisement. The joke’s on the hearts of the customers, isn’t it? It’s important to mention that The Body Shop and L’Oréal is, in its complexity, still functioning as two firms in a way, but it does feel like the blind leading the used to see but now have covered eyes.
What researchers have found out when it comes to sustainability is that the word itself holds a lot of guilt. People feeling guilty if they don’t go all the way. As if one good deed isn’t worth it if the next deed is bad. It makes perfect sense and it’s all psychological. You’ve eaten 50g of chocolate and you’re stuck with the feeling of messing up your green day so you eat 50g more because you think you’re already on your silky way to the gutter. This is okay, and this is fine. What’s absurd, however, are bloggers on their documentary trips to, let’s say, Cambodia. Showing the world, us, the realities in factories and you know the stories. That’s not absurd. What’s absurd is how they in the aftermath are doing advertisement the 21st century way: showing off outfits where the clothes in itself is a part of the payment. Where is the clothes in 95% of these sponsored YouTube-vids or images from? Fast fashion. Tell me about one fast fashion brand that does not make their clothes in Cambodia (or another poor country with employees working under horrific circumstances yet earns less than your goldfish) and I’ll personally give you a medal. Bloggers are influencers (even though copy paste from Pinterest is trendy) but the ones showing you how bad the world is yet front and work for the brands that is part of the problem should maybe seek out a therapist if a split personality is the real deal. That was harsh, pardon.
How could this article not include Coca-Cola. I hate to admit it, but Coca-Cola is ahead of plenty brands in our hearts and veins just because of the fact that it’s been existing since childhood. Then your childhood ends, and you start to wake up. To make soda you need water, and you don’t need to be a scientist to understand that taking water from people and villages that don’t have a lot of water in the first place doesn’t exactly make you the good guy. It’s the tale of the opposite Robin Hood. To manipulate the customers and every Coca-Cola drinking human being you need money, and money is what they do. They put a lot of effort into branding and also green branding, yet it’s all a visual play where we’re the viewers. To whomever said ignorance is bliss; no, ignorance is dangerous.
Header image: “Playground” by Magdiel Lopez
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