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I don't think advertisement works that well. While you may convince a small minority of consumers to consume in a climate conscious way, I sincerely doubt that
by rmchugh 11y ago
I don't think advertisement works that well. While you may convince a small minority of consumers to consume in a climate conscious way, I sincerely doubt that it would appeal to the vast majority. For example, you would need to persuade people not to eat meat, not to fly, not to purchase fresh food that has been transported by air, not to drive cars driven by fossil fuels etc etc. These are all things that make people's lives more enjoyable (for the most part), so you are asking people to act against their immediate self-interest. I don't think advertising is sufficient for this. What would be more effective is a carbon tax on consumer goods, which would drive the price of such goods up dramatically. But this would require government action.
As for solutions, I don't claim to have all the answers. I do think that the divestments movement is a very good idea, as is direct action against the most polluting industries (for example, a recent action to shut down Europe's largest coal mine).
- haxel 11y agoAh, I meant advertising in the sense that we're seeing tons of advertising for cheap meat, air travel, factory food, new gas cars, and whatnot. A good question to ask might be that if corporations _didn't_ advertise so much, how much less frequently would we buy those types of products/services? Would we still need them? I think the advertisers know what would happen, and so they have to keep it up. Now, if we decided to throw a few environmental ads into the current mix, I think you're right that they'd have little effect. But we can't forget how much advertising we see for stuff that's harmful in many ways, regardless of how temporarily satisfied we are with our purchases. Because so much of what we buy has serious negative (but hidden) consequences, advertising is causing us to act against our (non-immediate) self-interests.