Climate Change in Advertising

The pervasive use of the topics of climate change and sustainability in advertising means people are constantly confronted by these problems. However, statistics show that such marketing strategies are not as clever as they are intended to be. Most consumers don’t take product and image campaigns with environmental themes seriously, especially when companies emphasize their sustainability aims.

One example is the German railway system. They sell an Environmental BahnCard along with their regular BahnCard. The only difference with the Environmental BahnCard, other than its green landscape, is the digital points scheme used with the German rail website to support environmental projects. A TV advertisement for the card presents a family planning to travel, where the teenage girl is upset that her father wants to take the train instead of the car. A German singer joins them in the train’s cabin and so the girl asks her father if she too can have an Environmental BahnCard. It is not realistic that a teenager changes her opinion about the environment just because a famous singer is taking the train.

According to the Society of the German Language the German word of the year 2007 was ‘climatic catastrophe‘.[1] Though many companies try to raise public awareness of the environment and their products by using such strategies, it is often difficult to convey the right values and there is the risk that they appear to be ‘greenwashing‘ their image.

[1] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wort_des_Jahres