Fifty one years ago, on this day, November 2, 1972, the American writer and thinker Jerry Mander published an attack on image-making –
“Eco-Pornography: One Year and Nearly a Billion Dollars Later, Advertising Owns Ecology,” Communication Arts, November 2, 1972
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 327.5ppm. As of 2023 it is 419ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that by this point, the “Malthusian Moment” of eco-fear had been well underway for three years – really from 1968/1969. And the predicted response from corporates had come to pass – lots and lots of green-tinged advertising to soothe people’s consciences as they continued to buy stuff both that they needed and stuff that they didn’t need.
This comes back to a deeper idea of “nature as Redeemer” “nature as cure,” which had long been around in Romantic thinking.
What I think we can learn from this is that the big business moves were entirely predictable. And were predicted. But it’s still used because they still work.
What happened next
The term greenwashing was invented in the 90s. Chevron had some smiling, laughing dolphins and some seals clapping at the idea of double-hulled oil tankers.
See also “Nulture” as a term.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.