JOUR 3745 Honors Project

CH 6 “Faint-Green: Advertising and the Natural World�

As has been recited throughout many of the articles as well as videos in this class, we are exposed to three thousand advertisements each day and these are, without a doubt, the ultimate pop culture message. What we might fail to notice while viewing these ads is that they often contain elements of the natural world – usually in the form of a backdrop. Corbett describes these “Nature-as-backdrop� ads as the majority of what we see in advertising, but often the least studied (148). Most research has been done recently on “green advertisements� which focus on promoting environmental sensitivity toward some aspect of the biophysical world, promote a “green lifestyle� or present a company as environmentally responsible.
As an aside, I learned from this chapter what the difference between advertising and marketing is. This was something that has always plagued me, and since I am not a business or communications major I never really could differentiate between the two. Here, Advertising is defined as the task of producing discrete promotional messages about products, services, or organizations and paying to display them through mass media channels like newspapers and televisions and in public venues, like billboards. Marketing is concerned with the entire process of selling a product or service through pricing, distribution, positioning, and promotion. (149).
A theme throughout the book so far has been that people have an inclination to anthropomorphize elements of nature, including animals. This is why we see many ads or commercials like a recent one I’ve seen wherein the animals in a car begin singing along with the driver. Advertisers have us link the personality and cultural meaning of the animal to the product. In this case, all of the wild animals in the car are supposed to give us the feeling that the SUV the man is driving is rugged and is made for driving through a wild environment, and not only that, but you can have a fun time while doing it. I’m sure most people are familiar with recent green image ads of popular companies like Budweiser. Sometimes they don’t even mention the product itself, but hope to have you associate with the environmental concern. This doesn’t seem far off from the tactics developed to change ads in the 1920s when ads stopped focusing on the product description and began equating it with a consumer lifestyle instead. Corbett even notes “The purpose of an ad is not to stress that the product functions properly, but that consumption of it will cure problems, whether loneliness, age, or even a desire to connect with the natural world� (165).
The important thing to remember is that these types of ads are subject to “greenwashing� when corporations pose as friends to the environment but their performance doesn’t match the image (153). There is often a lack of regulation regarding the statements made by companies and no consistent way of measuring the truthfulness between companies. For example, a company might say that a product uses only recyclable materials in its production when, in fact, it never used non-recyclable materials to begin with. Ads encourage “the promotion of a social order in which people are encouraged to think of themselves and their private worlds� which contributes to a very anthropocentric and narcissistic perspective. The environment doesn’t work well as our private space because it must exist in concert with other social institutions in a way that is mutually reinforcing. We are almost always taught that we can use products to control and dominate nature. Although we have a sense that nature somehow should counter consumerism and serve as an antidote to materialism, it is actually used for the opposite goal in advertising. While I think that individuals can educate themselves about the reality of nature in advertising, and this may serve to alleviate some of its influences, I don’t know how likely it is that we can eliminate all of its power whether it occurs directly or indirectly. This is another major point of link between what I’ve learned from this project and the class itself. There may not be a direct causal relationship between what we see in media and what our behaviors and actions are, but there is definitely some kind of effect that is very difficult to separate from other factors that influence our lives.

Posted by Miranda Beck at 6:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Leisure in Nature as Commodity and Entertainment

Leisure and entertainment in nature are increasingly promoted as a consumption opportunity. When this occurs, it mitigates and clouds our experiences with the natural world. It is clear that today’s marketplace encourages us to think of free time as yet another consumption opportunity and recreation as just another market. It is as if people can’t enjoy leisure activities without the assistance of material goods and purchasing things that ultimately should be incapable of being bought or sold – for example camping outdoors. It is almost absurd to note that some campsites even offer free wireless internet now. People continue to spend a great deal of income on leisure-time purchases and even companies promoting environmental causes and fair working conditions ultimately promote consumption. For example, Patagonia a outdoor equipment and clothing retailer uses short narratives and stories throughout its catalog to “work around any guilt related to consumerism� (Corbett, 111). Corbett also points out that the models are thin, handsome, and happy; the nature backdrops are sublime. Just as we are taught by relentless advertising methods that we should view females in a certain way, I think this shows that we are even trained in the ways we think about nature. I know I personally would have to admit I am a sap for the messages in many of these catalog essays (specifically REI) that suggest I can leave my regular life behind and develop some kind of relationship with nature (by purchasing the right gear, of course). I thought it was interesting that there is a section of this chapter called “The Weather Doesn’t Give a Damn!� because it points out that forecasts present weather as a phenomenon that’s anthropocentric, to be controlled, and with which we connect most strongly through consumption and leisure. We base many activities around this and often personify and blame the weather claiming, “it ruined our weekend� or “wreaked havoc� on us. Corbett says the fact remains that “the weather doesn’t give a damn! ‘Mother’ nature doesn’t care whether you want warm sunshine on Saturday, or snow at Christmas� (115). There are ads for specific weather related conditions like socks during cold snaps and nasal sprays during allergy reports.
In other instances of the “hybrid consumption� linked to nature, places like Disney World that promote fantasy lands and land pavilions with fake although lifelike nature scenery all promote fusing of consumption items. This includes food, drink, merchandise, entertainment and lodging all in one location so people will stay longer and spend more. Creating a “destination� has been utilized by casinos, cruises, theme parks and shopping malls as a means of getting people to do this. One example that comes to my mind is the Rainforest Café where you can eat, enjoy the scenery of real fish swimming behind tanks right next to the table, enjoy the technologically created “atmosphere� of the rainforest, sometimes see real animals like snakes, take picture with the fake ones and buy a whole slew of rainforest related merchandise all in the same place. Despite all of the commodification regarding nature, sometimes it is difficult for people to remember that leisure also provides us with many things that ultimately are incapable of being bought or sold: peace, relaxation and spirituality.

Posted by Miranda Beck at 11:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Work and Consumer Culture

In today’s world the realms of work and consumer culture seem separate and disconnected. Since we spend most of our work hours inside, it follows that most indoor workers might consider their work largely irrelevant to and unconnected with nature. But it is important to remember that our work is what “buys� our leisure and Corbett argues that all work intersects with nature though in very different ways. According to sociologist Juliet Shor, since 1948 the productivity of U.S. workers has more than doubled, meaning that we can produce a 1948 standard of living now in about half the time (Corbett, 89). But what happened to all of the extra money we make? We go shopping. By the 1990s the average American owned and consumed more than twice as much as he or she did in 1948, however, we also have less free time. This work-spend cycle becomes increasingly difficult to get away from especially as people try to work more to be able to spend more. This has obvious and detrimental implications for the natural world. The United States has only 5 percent of the world’s population but consumes 20 percent of its natural resources and 25 percent of its energy supply (Corbett, 90). This is more than any other country on earth. Corbett describes this as the development of the “buyosphere,� a place that is not a civic space, but is our chief arena for expression and the place where we learn most about who we are as people and individuals. In modern society, we are so entangled in consumer culture that it is virtually impossible to leave this space, just as some of the other materials in class portray, the line between advertising and content is becoming blurred to distinction. Advertising and marketing play all-important roles, and privatism (as far as focusing on one’s personal interests and desires is concerned) tends to dominate most people’s thinking and behavior. Also as we discussed in class, Corbett describes the advertising industry as “the destroyer and creator in the process of the ever-evolving new� (Corbett, 96). Obsolescence of items continues to nurture the condition of consumer dissatisfaction until they purchase a new item. And last, as we recently read in Anna McCarthy’s article, the use of point of purchase can often get people to feel that if they buy a product they too can move up in class. The chapter points to “conspicuous consumption� of the leisure class as a primary index of its social status and prestige (Corbett, 99). We fail to think about the process of consumption while we focus on the purchase. Most consumers don’t understand where things came from or where they go and this has contributed greatly to our ecological illiteracy. We don’t think about how much of our packaging is waste, because we are focused on the design, style and persuasiveness. Products are either non-usable, can be reduced, reused, recycled or put in the trash. Although many places have the ability to recycle, it’s hardly an institutional ethic. The point is, no job, no matter what level, escapes the environmental consequences of its labor. We might think our distances from it lessens our responsibility, but this dualism can only mean the absence of nature and nature can only mean human leisure so that the both will be poorer. In an example from my own life, I was happy to find a company to work for this past summer that took environmental concerns into account. The company, JohnsonDiversey, actually took pride in taking action to work toward a better environment by making the workplace more efficient. It is a gold standard LEED certified building that uses windows as a source of lights and motion-sensors when necessary, it strives to use environmentally-safe chemicals and although its focus is on earning a profit, it will sacrifice profit when significant issues harming the environment are concerned. All of the employees were educated on the process of product manufacturing and in this way everyone was literate about his or her role in affecting the environment. Hopefully in the future many more companies and institutions will be taking efforts to do something similar.

Posted by Miranda Beck at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CH 3 “The Links between Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors�

This chapter explored links between environmental belief systems and the opinions, attitudes, and behaviors derived from them. I learned how to differentiate between the terms “belief�, “value�, “attitude� and “opinion.�
-Beliefs are assumptions by which we understand things and live our lives
-Values are statements about the way things “should� be
-Attitudes express a positive or negative evaluation of another person, idea, or entity
-Opinions are a publicly expressed preference
Since the word “environmentalist� tends to be a loaded word today and is often used to stereotype extremely diverse set of beliefs it is important to come to a better understanding of what it really means. According to the New Oxford English Dictionary, an environmentalist is “a person who is concerned about or seeks to protect the environment, especially from pollution� (Corbett, 59). This is clearly a very broad definition and explains why such a wide variety of people might identify themselves as environmentalists when in fact they may behave very differently toward the environment. It was interesting to come across a list of demographics that are most closely associated with a concern for the environment. These include being young, female, colored, educated, upper-class, liberal and urban. Some of these results seem counter-intuitive to what kind of person you would think of as an environmentalist as portrayed by the media. I personally would think of an older white man. In order to test your own ecological worldview the most widely accepted test is the New Ecological Paradigm Scale (Corbett, 64). Public opinion polls have found that the majority of Americans support environmental protection, but do they really strive for it? By this decade it is increasingly popular, but still not everyone who says they support it behaves in the same way.
The three most important factors that determine our position are awareness, personal conduct knowledge, and environmental literacy. Why is there still a disconnect between attitudes and behaviors? We are a culture governed by a paradigm based on continual growth and consumption. There are many other factors that influence our attitudes and behaviors such as this. How can we actually demonstrate environmental concern? There are many ways and varying degrees of engagement including environmental activisim (the most intense like monetary donations), nonactivist behavior in the public sphere (writing letters to political leaders), private sphere environmentalism (green consumerism), and actions within organizations to which we belong (designing less packaging for a product). There is no way we can guarantee a person’s behavior, although a person’s values are relatively stable across lifetimes and become important predictors (Corbett, 73). The bottom line is that there isn’t any top-down message to cause people to support environmentalism. We are far too complex social and psychological beings. It does matter, however, what messages are communicated to us. For example, advertisements on TV almost always encourage consumption. Maybe we get a tax rebate for buying energy efficient appliances though. Perhaps a new public transport system is built in our city. Achieving social change in small or large ways must cross and include all levels: individual, societal, cultural and even global.

Posted by Miranda Beck at 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CH 2 “A Spectrum of Environmental Ideologies�

Before reading this chapter my notion of the term “conservationism� applying to the environment was that it was one of the more extreme ecocentric ideologies favoring environmental protection. I had no idea that it is actually closer to an anthropocentric belief system and I was unaware of the many other ideologies that exist. The two extreme ideologies I just mentioned lie on a spectrum with anthropocentric (human-centered) on the left and ecocentric (all living and nonliving elements of nonhuman world are intrinsically valuable and important) on the right. In between lie the following ideologies:
Anthropocentricism
Unrestrained instrumentalism (natural world and its resources exist solely for human use)
Conservationism (“Wise use� and “greatest use for greatest number� of people)
Preservationism (conserve for scientific, ecological, aesthetic or religious worth)
(Midpoint of spectrum)
Ethics & value-driven ideologies (nonhuman entities have intrinsic value/right to exist)
Transformative ideologies (attempt to find root causes of anti-environmental attitudes)
Ecocentricism
There are subcategories of many of these main principles as well and virtually the entirety of environmental communication in America is taken from the anthropocentric side of the spectrum (which is exactly how I felt after discovered that there was another side of the spectrum). I think the message Corbett wanted to get across in this chapter was that it is difficult for people to discuss environmental ideologies and come to conclusions about what needs to be done to help the environment if we aren’t equipped with the correct understandings that allow us to relate to the natural world. Knowing the full spectrum of environmental ideologies is the first step to understanding where environmental messages are “coming from.� I have discovered that my ideology lies somewhere between conservationist and preservationist. I believe that building a society requires that we develop and conserve the land’s resources as well as leave some of the wilderness untouched purely to value it for its beauty as well as the valuable information it can give us for scientific purposes like gene pools and undiscovered medicines.
Since I barely knew about the right side of the spectrum and those beliefs closest to ecocentricism I decided to look into the transformative ideology of ecofeminism. Corbett points to the fact that “throughout history, nature has been more identified with the feminine than the masculine� (47). After exploring an ecofeminist group website (http://eve.enviroweb.org/what_is/index.html) called “ecofeminist visions emerging�, I read an essay by Catherine Roach which emphasized that the ideology is still struggling to find its definition. Some women felt that a mother-nature relationship empowered them while others felt it should be more about gender equality and not letting a patriarchal view dominate nature. Roach says, “we're all part of nature, some of us are just more aware of our connection.� Similar to feminist debates in general, there still seems to be some discrepancy on what the ecofeminist view encompasses. The homepage describes it by saying, “although there is no one "correct" ecofeminism, most ecofeminists would agree with the core precept that the domination of women and the domination of nature are fundamentally connected. In other words, violence against Mother Earth came to be intertwined with an emerging urge to subdue and control women.� Whatever the definition of ecofeminism will become, it was refreshing to realize that there are plenty of ideologies that exist besides what is constantly portrayed in the media.

Posted by Miranda Beck at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)