The Sins of Greenwashing

If you're not familiar with the term Greenwashing, the environmental marketing firm TerraChoice has a great primer on this dastardly practice just for you: The Six Sins of Greenwashing.


Thanks Kara!

The best social advertising blog returns!

After a long wait the excellent Houtlust blog has returned as Osocio. As in the past the site collects the best of advertising/marketing for social issues/non-profits from across the globe, but the new incarnation includes extra features like news feeds, non-profit profiles, and a dictionary of terminology. Probably the biggest change is that Marc van Gurp, who ran Houtlust solo has added several new editors to the site from around the world (including yours truly!).

Osocio is a truly indispensable resource for anyone interested in the intersection of marketing and social good.

Propaganda Critic

Aaron Delwiche's site Propaganda Critic, was created to continue the pioneering work of the Institute for Propaganda Analysis, which promoted critical propaganda analysis from 1937-1942. The site, which has been online since 1994, provides an overview of propaganda techniques and gives historical and recent examples. There's also a page of links to classic propaganda films hosted on the Internet Archive.

via Social Design Notes

Tori Amos Sings with PS22 Chorus

After seeing videos of an elementary school chorus rehearsing her songs, Tori Amos took off some time promoting her new album to hang out with these super adorable 5th graders. Which I guess, is actually a really great promotion for her new album. The videos were posted to YouTube by Mr. B, a cool chorus teacher at a Long Island public elementary school. As he says, these kids are 'extraordinary little people' with an impressive musical repertoire.






You can go to the PS22 Chorus Blog to see more.

This is just so unpretentious and cool. Nice that Amos and her people took this as an opportunity to do something fan-centric - and ultimately a better promotion than they could have ever made up - rather than sending a C and D letter to PS22 for copyright infringements. You really never know, these days!

Drug Testing vs. Soap Testing

Check out this awesome bit of bizarre news, turned into humorously positive marketing for the excellent Dr. Bronner's soaps...



via WFMU

If you like the blog...

...you might also enjoy the newsletter that my company sends out on a semi-regular basis called Designletter. It's easy to digest, comes right to your inbox and features expanded versions of items mentioned in this blog as well as more in depth info on individual socially responsible businesses (that also just happen to be our clients). You can read the latest issue here and if you like sign up for future issues (and we promise, absolutely NO spam) here.

Bill Hicks on Marketing

As usual a comedian has to say for us, what many of us just think about the field of marketing. Ah Bill Hicks, we miss you...



via Word Soup