Marketing Earth Day

Corporate America has discovered that going "green" brings in the green. Today is Earth Day. A day originally conceived to tap into environmental concerns of the public and transfer the anti-war energy of the 1960's younger generation over to an environmental cause. Most people under the age of thirty -five recognise Earth Day as a day to do community cleanup, recycle, save the whales, save the trees, or save the world in general. Big business sees it as another day to make the cash registers ring ca-ching. In the last couple of years companies such as Wal-Mart, Macy's, Banana Republic, and J.C. Penney have championed the green movement and created their own lines of supposedly eco friendly fashions and home decor. And they're just a handful of the many companies who have turned Earth Day into a marketing bonanza. This begs the question; does all this marketing of going "green" help the environmental cause or just result in turning the general public off? Will there ever come a time of "green" over saturation? Until such time, corporations will continue to insist that we as consumers buy more in order to save the planet.