Last Monday, the Washington Post ran an advertising supplement entitled “Environmental Leadership.”


The front page of this section featured articles by the likes of Charlie Crist, Governor of Florida, and Nancy Sutley, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. On the back, a familiar ad makes an appearance.

But the most audacious bit of greenwash, outshining even the presence of the advertising supplement itself, could be found on page 5:

The last paragraph of the ad reads:

“Producing more. Conserving more. Improving farmers’ lives. That’s sustainable agriculture. And that’s what Monsanto is all about.”

Is this the same Monsanto that manufactured Agent Orange?

Does “improving farmers’ lives” include forcing genetically modified crops on farmers, and leaving them to suffer when those crops fail?

Or suing farmers when Monsanto’s GM crops mix with other crops?

Listing Monsanto’s offensives against farmers and agriculture the world over would take more time than Monsanto is worth; but the presence of Monsanto in the ineptly titled “Environmental Leadership” demonstrates how thoroughly these green sections of the newspaper are vehicles for greenwash. Though most of the articles are, in fact, by CEOs promoting their company’s boutique green project, even they don’t take up as much space as, for instance, Lockheed Martin’s jump onto the greenwash:

 

Lockheed Martin’s greening of its brand is a particularly acute case of cognitive dissonance (or perhaps just Dirty Business), as it is the world’s largest weapons exporter, as well as the manufacturer behind the F-22 fighter jet and a designer of nuclear missiles. Several million dollars invested in biomass energy seems paltry next to the $91 million per missile cost of the Lockheed Martin-made Patriot missile.

The money spent crafting these increasingly vague advertising campaigns (Will You Join Us? to How) could be better spent elsewhere—in, say, developing cheaper solar power.

Unfortunately, the companies with the marketing budgets remain too invested in dirty businesses. Which is why the environmental advertising supplement remains just that: advertising.

-Stop Greenwash