I picked this up on the Bloomberg wire this morning:

“Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Jr., co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, urged the world to fight on against global warming at the conclusion of UN climate talks instead of focusing on celebrity news like the legal woes of O.J. Simpson and Paris Hilton’s latest shopping escapade.

“Gore told a packed auditorium of UN envoys today in Poznan, Poland, that a new U.S. administration under Barack Obama, as well as efforts by China, South Africa and developing nations to cut carbon output, are reasons for optimism that a deal to slow CO2 emissions can be reached at talks in Copenhagen next year.

Does it really take a Nobel Peace Prize Winner to educate the global media on how to prioritize their news coverage — hmmm, Paris Hilton at a club or melting ice bergs on top of our planet? I wonder why journalism is viewed so cynically by this generation of news avoiders.

Darren Shuster

In his book, The Green Collar Economy, Van Jones writes that many of the green consumer stereotypes that exist are downright wrong:

The Green Collar Worker: “When you think of the emerging green economy, don’t think of George Jetson with a jet pack. Think of Joe Sixpack with a hard hat and lunch bucket, sleeves rolled up, going off to fix America. Think of Rosie the Riveter, manufacturing parts for hybrid buses or wind turbines. Those images will represent the true face of a green-collar America.”

The Green Shopper: “People imagine a few Hollywood celebrities eating tofu, doing yoga, and driving hybrid cars. They envision affluent white people who care about nothing but polar bears and can afford to shop at health-food stores and put solar panels on their second home …Many of these caricatures are grossly unfair.”

According to The McKinsey Quarterly, the impulse to “go green” is spreading fast …

“but when it comes time to actually buying green goods, words and deeds often part ways. No more than 33 percent of the consumers in our survey say they are ready to buy green products or have already done so. In a 2007 Chain Store Age survey of 822 US consumers, only 25 percent of them report having bought any green product other than organic foods or energy-efficient lighting.

These numbers seem to reflect a pretty good startint point so I guess the glass is half full for this blogger. Check out the full article at http://tinyurl.com/5whno8.

Li and Bernoff wrote a great new book, Groundswell, about the rise of social media and its relationship with this generation’s marketing professionals. As our own agencies — 3rd Planet PR and parent company Pop Culture PR – work to develop successful case studies in the social media community, these authors offer great advice in hiring a PR agency:

“Marketers must also prepare for changes in their agency relationshps. Ask for proof that an agency has managed — and measured — a campaign aimed at the murky social middle of the funnel.”

The take away: Many PR agencies claim to have a strong social media track record, and most simply do not. I think those firms that take the time to learn, practice, fail, succeed, and develop their social media manners, will rise to the top over the next few years. Marketers should keep an eye out for real capabilties and track record from their agencies.

In Joel Makeower’s book, “Strategies for the Green Economy,” the author breaks down Green Consumers into the following categories:

(34%) “Bright Greens”: highly engaged but skeptical

(10%) “Green Motivated”: likely to accept corporate green programs at face value

(26%) “Green Hypocrites”: love to talk about green but don’t go even slightly out of their way for it

(19%) “Green Ignorants”: don’t know, don’t care

(11%) “Dull Greens”: not explained in the book

Just when you thought it was safe to start touting your company as eco-friendly, consumers and organizations are beginning to create tools to cut through the clutter — and this explains the Rise of the Anti-Greenwashing Website.   

These outlets are giving consumers a chance to voice their opinions about your marketing ethics. Has your company been blacklisted on http://greenworldads.blogspot.com or www.greenwashingindex.com?

Are you called out on Greenpeace’s www.stopgreenwash.org? As to be expected with modern public relations, consumer marketing is a two-way street — that is, consumers will ‘talk back’ and any dissonance between reality and ‘image marketing’ will eventually backfire. So, advertisers beware!

A Greenwashing Index? Green Business Beware

Check out www.GreenWashingIndex.com – home of the “world’s first online interactive forum” that allows consumers to evaluate real advertisements making environmental claims. Since “Going green” has become mainstream for businesses, these guys want to hold green business accountable — and you better be careful what you communicate or the people may have their say. The Greenwashing Index is an automated tool that “provides five simple criteria developed by advertising academia and weighted according to their relevance in marketing claims.”

So, the next time you decide to run that ad, you might want to run it through this little scrubber. Hey, does the same thing exist for press releases?