Mirth Day

In honor of Earth Day, some of my favorite moments in ridiculous greenwashing:

The Clean Coal ads. Fuck off. Coal is not clean. Ever. Period. Nor is it a clean and renewable resource even if it is cheap, we currently have a lot of it and people are figuring out ways to deal with the black smoke caused by burning it for power.The proof is in the pudding: Have you ever touched coal?

Chevron’s "Imagine an oil company as part of the solution" – you can’t be the problem and the solution at the same time, Chevron, and spending 1% of your budget on renewable energy doesn’t really count.

BP’s "Green" Gas station in LA – This one is fantastic. It’s a GAS station. But it’s a "green" building. And the staff wear organic cotton uniforms. And they hand out information at the gas pump about how to live a greener life.

Carbon Neutral – There is no such thing as carbon neutral. I don’t care how much money you spend financing a renewable energy project that may or may not happen in the Amazon.

Shell’s Hippie Ad – Throwing some Grateful Dead fonts and trippy graphics into your ads doesn’t make you an "energy" company.

Destiny USA – A green mall. Right.

Fiji Water’s Every Drop is Green campaign – Every drop except the petroleum you used to make the bottle.

Earth Day – Hey, Happy Earth Day everybody! Let’s go buy stuff to show the planet how much we love her.

That’s just off the top of my head. For tons more examples and to vote on some of your favorites, check out the Greenwashing Index.

What do you think?