ABSTRACT
Back in the 1960s, trying to lead an environmentally conscious lifestyle, and especially integrating green into one’s shopping, was a very fringe phenomenon. But it’s now decidedly mainstream – and changing the rules of the marketing game in a very big way. Set in motion by Rachel Carson’s seminal book Silent Spring (1962), the clichéd forerunners of today’s green consumers lived off the nation’s electric grid, installed solar-powered hot-water heaters on their roofs, crunched granola they baked themselves, and could be spotted wearing hemp clothing, Birkenstocks, and driving a Volkswagen bus. Whatever greener products were available – mostly from fringe businesses, and sometimes manufactured in basements and garages – gathered dust on the bottom shelves of health food stores for good reason: they didn’t work, they were pricey, and they sported brand names no one had ever heard of. Not surprisingly, there was little demand for them. The natural laundry powders that were introduced in response to the phosphate scare of 1970 left clothes looking dingy, first-generation compact fluorescent light bulbs sputtered and cast a green haze, and multigrain cereals tasted like cardboard. If you were motivated to recycle, you lugged your bottles and daily newspapers to a drop-off spot inconveniently located on the far side of town. Green media was limited to treasured copies of National Geographic, PBS specials of Jacques Cousteau’s underwater adventures, and the idealist and liberal Mother Jones, Utne Reader, and New Age magazines.
