Suddenly everyone wants to save the climate. In an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek manner, Toralf Staud, founder of the internet blog http://www.klimaluegendetektor.de picks up on dozens of cases of »greenwashing« and exposes businesses, lobbyists and politicians.
Green electricity from E.on, eco-friendly flights with Lufthansa, drive a Porsche and protect the environment – companies have recently started promising us the moon. And their image is at least as important as their products. Terms such as »sense of responsibility« or »sustainable« are today absolute musts in advertisements and business reports.
But what’s really behind them? Are the products ecologically useful? Or is this a case of »greenwashing«? How do clever PR strategies give companies a green guise? Advertising departments and lobbyists are becoming increasingly clever at this. Virtually no one today would deny that the climate is changing (and that man is to blame). Few would dare doubt the necessity of climate protection. Instead, information is misrepresented, omitted or placed in misleading contexts. Companies decorate themselves with celebrities, advertise impressive-sounding prizes, make a big thing of their own activities no matter how small they actually are. All of this only works if no one asks any questions. But closer scrutiny and detailed research soon burst the bubbles that are produced at great financial expense and with great rhetorical effort.
