ECOLOGICAL MARKETING ; Green Brands Is the environmental and ethical integrity of products and brands part of a new marketing responsibility or just another way to con the consumer? Rachel Helyer Donaldson takes a London view of a new trend.

Marketing Magazine (Auckland), August, 2005 by Rachel Helyer Donaldson

It's not easy bein' green, It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things.

And people tend to pass you over 'cos you're not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water, or stars in the sky.

Kermit the Frog sang about the difficulties of being green on Sesame Street in 1972. It was the dawn of a new era, as green issues came to the fore, albeit among a small minority. In the 30 years since, we've seen the success of the Body Shop established in 1976, the empty sloganeering of the environmental movement in the 1980s and the rise of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the 1990s. In the 21st century, campaigns to Make Poverty History and the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gases dominate public consciousness.

But the problem faced by Kermit back...

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