G-r-r-reen Washing
The ACCC has warned AFA members that “Vague, unsubstantiated, misleading, false or deceptive environmental or green claims not only are at risk of breaching the Trade Practices Act, but they also reduce consumer confidence in such claims and disadvantage ethical traders from doing the right thing.”
The ACCC has launched the publications, Carbon Claims and the Trade Practices Act, Green marketing and the Trade Practices Act, and For Consumers: Environmental Issues, which deal specifically with these issues.
To obtain copies contact the ACCC or Gawen Rudder at the AFA.
This action follows proceedings concluded by the ACCC when the Federal Court declared that GM Holden made false and misleading claims in its "Grrrrrreen" campaign, more
which promoted the environmentally friendly nature of its Saab vehicles. The ads carried lines such as "Every Saab is green with carbon emissions neutral across the entire Saab range" and "Shift to Neutral.” The company also claimed it would plant 17 native trees to offset the carbon dioxide emissions for the life of that vehicle.
The Court found these claims to be misleading. The carbon dioxide emissions from any Saab would not be neutral over the life of the vehicle, and the planting of 17 native trees would only provide a carbon dioxide emission offset for one year's operation of the motor vehicle.
GM Holden undertook to withdraw the advertising, retrain all Saab sales and marketing staff regarding to misleading 'green' marketing claims and plant 12,500 native trees - a sufficient number to offset the carbon dioxide emissions for the life of all Saabs sold during the campaign.
Subliminal Conspiracy Theorists
And Ten they were also cautioned by ACMA for their use of an evil form of persuasion called ‘subliminal advertising.’ It seems this occurred during the introduction to the ARIAs last year via quick one-frame bursts of sponsor logos: Chupa Chups, Big W, Olay, Telstra Bigpond, KFC and Toyota. The Authority reviewed the material and found the “rapid-cut graphics used in the program was a technique that attempted to convey information to viewers below or near the threshold of normal awareness.” The Network argued the rapid-cut graphics were intended to be creatively consistent with the fast-paced look and feel of the music presentations. But the word ‘subliminal’ strikes panic and fear amongst the conspiracy theorists. So what are the origins of subliminal advertising? More
In 1957, a naughty US market researcher named James Vicary claimed that quickly flashing messages on a movie screen had influenced people to purchase more food and drinks. Vicary coined the term ‘subliminal advertising’ and formed the Subliminal Projection Company. He claimed that during the presentation of the movie ‘Picnic’ he used a tachistoscope to project the words ‘Drink Coke’ and ‘Hungry? Eat popcorn’ for 1/3000 of a second at five-second intervals. He claimed that during the test, sales of popcorn and Coke in the cinema increased 57.8 percent and 18.1 percent respectively. It was later revealed that Vicary lied about the experiment.