The Big Green Paint Job
Naseem Javed | July 26,2010 11:49 am IST
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pdfSuddenly, away from the hundreds of available colors, there is a rush all over the world to paint almost everything green; green paint, green ribbons, green wrappings and green fabrics becoming the top choice, causing shortages of the material, while green logos, green billboards and almost politically-correct green ties and attires are becoming the most fashionable and trendy statements. Just like a year-round St.
Patrick's Day; the big green dress party has started. As if this process will provide that green-mask, creating the appearance of a fighter, presence of a leader, out-fixing the global environment.
Oh Really?
The marketing and communication machines of the big businesses all across the world are being armed with the method of projecting ecology and greenery, the color that is, as they are becoming more wrapped up in devising color schemes than in carbon saving and real ecology matters.
One would only be amazed to see how all over the world, garbage bins from offices are so regularly collected, emptied, sorted and arranged in little heaps, by dynamic, green-uniformed personnel as if they are performing some acrobatic tasks, while the same companies on the other side of the not-so-green escarpments are spewing purple, red and black liquids; flowing down rivers and streams, resulting in colorful patches that are easily visible from any daytime flight. There is something wrong with this scene; though carefree waste production is still considered to be the backbone of the industrial revolution and its related superiority.
Is this entire ecology-sensitive greenery facade just a hoopla offering lip-service to the green movement, or does the real message still need some serious distillation?
Now, this of course calls to order the super-green-men from the new-branding-circus. As the green signal zips across the globe and somewhere over the horizon, the army of re-packaging experts awaits in their shiny green suits, carrying green flags while humming the song of the unicorn; much like the hysteria seen during the heydays of e-commerce, where the same armies came up with the idea of inserting the letter "e" into any corporate identity to project the software-savvy side of e-commerce and digital superiority over their old, struggling industrial dinosaurs like sawmills and beaten-up metal factories. The need to re-brand and re-label was required to catch the attention of the IPO boom and stock markets of the world, resulting in the creating of e-Lumber, e-Steel and e-Cement.
During the dizzying period of 'irrational exuberance', companies often falsely pretended that their stacking chimneys were really cyber-towers of artificial intelligence, and projected e-commerce hype during the uncontrollable stock market boom, creating instant millionaires. Of course, a little while later, there was silence, as the bust created a new chapter in corporate history.
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