Patagonia

Many cast marketing as a manipulative industry that distorts our beliefs into craving another taquito or plastic injection-molded toy to fill the voids of our stomachs and closets. Even if we see marketing that espouses the concept of an energy-efficient, locally-based, low-carb widget, we tend to think that the whole thing has been ‘greenwashed‘. Wal-Mart can’t actually be a net positive for the environment, can it?

Is there a place for a marketing agency that promotes only truly net-positive goods and services? And not just promotion with the goal of increasing sales, but with the goal of bettering our world. Obviously this flies in the face of capitalism and the need for profit, but I think there are plenty of business owners who would agree with that sentiment, and who believe their products do such a thing.

I’m thinking things like Patagonia’s “Don’t Buy This Jacket“. One of the premises behind Patagonia’s values is that its goods are built to last, and that due to their quality you don’t need to replace them as often which means less waste. For “Cyber Monday,” Patagonia said don’t buy things. This worked for them because no one else had this message.

This hypothetical agency would have a high bar for clients. Being a client of the agency would be as much as a certification as being a ‘B-corporation‘. The agency would only use the most efficient means of advertising. Maybe some of the resources would be used to attack greenwashing, exposing other companies ‘Yes Men‘-style.

This type of marketing would usually be called activism. But if it participates within the system and remains profitable, it could be another gear in the progress machine.