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Is ‘going green’ a female thing?

Posted in General, Advertising, Media, Marketing, Arif Durrani, Latest reporters' blogs March 10th, 2008 by Arif Durrani

Why don’t men care about the environment? A recent study by advertising agency Euro RSCG - involving a thousand odd people (that’s the amount not a description) has found that women are far more likely than men to pay extra for brands claiming to have green credentials.

Apparently, more than half of women are willing to fork out if a brand appears to be environmentally friendly, compared with just over a third of men. Similarly, brands which promote their eco-stripes are also generally perceived more positively by the fairer sex but not necessarily by men.
I don’t believe this will come as a big shock to any man who happens to have a woman in his life, but it does beg the question, why is saving the world considered to be a female thing?

Are we really too busy to keep the human race alive? Is it possible that we’ve reached the point where the idea of combating global warming, mass flooding and devastating fires no longer makes it onto the to-do list? 

I for one am quite fond of the ice-caps, and don’t get me started on those cute tigers/monkeys/pandas… I guess the reality is that we’re all just too jaded to take anything on face value anymore. This stance seems to be justified by the now daily wave after wave of marketing greenwash.

A green bilge of branding already covers everything from washing machines and cars to supermarkets and computers. Within this mêlée, confusion reins. Biofuels, once tipped as the saviour of the car industry, are already being slammed for their impact on farming and forestation.

Similarly, one time no-brainers, like wind farming, now carry health warnings for local wild life, not to mention fans of panoramic views. And who would have thought that nuclear energy would be the next great hope for Britain in the 21st Century – I’m sure I heard something about that all being a tad dangerous not too long ago.

There can be no doubt that green is the new black as far as marketers are concerned, but as brands clamber to be seen giving the right message from the right people, is the actual process of saving the planet getting lost in the process?