Wednesday, July 09, 2008

< Right Thought, Wrong Illustration / >

A friend traveling in Europe sent this photo of a mini-billboard on the back of an airport bench:


"The Swedish airport is green," he writes. "All non-flight vehicles use biofuel." An example of right thought and right intention, but let's think for a minute: what kind of "biofuel" is the ad referring to, exactly? Overlooking the fact that this kind of ad could never run in the United States (too many people would start drinking from fuel pumps and bursting into flames, and their families would sue), and that there is a legal disclaimer in small print (click on the photo), how are we defining "clean" here? Minimalist advertising like this has all the potential in the world to be simple greenwashing, giving the illusion of intelligent and responsible ecology where none exists.

Clever ad? Sure. But we don't need clever. We need clear.

Facts, please, min god besätta.

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