Green Advertising Essay

Introduction

Color holds an important place in the world of advertising and marketing. The graphics, placement of images and text, the use of colors are of great importance in conveying the right message about the product, services or the business (Color and Marketing). People get attracted to an ad because of its presentation, the matter and the colors used. Major assessments are based on colors alone, and thus these colors play a significant role in advertisement to grab the attention of people, influence their moods as well differentiate products from competitors. Thus, the advertising managers and creators need to understand the importance of colors in marketing.
The paper looks at the use of ‘green color’ in Pro Green Ads and compares two such ads and whether they succeed in delivering their point or message to the viewers. The paper discusses the ads in detail and the messages the ads convey to the masses.

One finds a lot more messages and advertisements coming in due to the rising awareness of global warming and environmental issues. Thus, it is no surprise to see higher use of green color in advertisements. Even giant companies like Toyota, IBM, Coca-Cola are seen to focus more on the sustainability issues, conserving fuel and protecting the environment in their advertisements. Green advertising is on the rise with the aim of education and changing consumer behaviors. Even consumer concerns about the environment are on the increase in recent years and want to learn more about how they can reduce their Carbon print and improve their environmental performance. Having more of those Green Ads amidst us is a good sign as it shows the sensitivity to the environmental issues among consumers and the companies (Haytko and Erika).
Green advertising is not a new strategy for n marketing, and we are well in the third age of green marketing. The first green ads emerged in the 1980’s and focused on environmental issues as the air and water pollution and use of pesticides. Later, there grew more awareness on creating environmental products that were of high quality and cost competitive. Today, the maximum focus is on global warming and the green ads aim to garner more support for environmental issues. Sustainability arguments must drive these ads and to convey the message. With the global Earth Day 1990 celebration, it was apparent that there was a growing awareness of the environment and thus a strong support for these issues. The new surge in environmental problems has seen a rise of more than 430% in green print advertisements. The marketers try to take advantage of green consumers and capitalize on their growing concerns for the environment. The green advertisement have played a significant role in educating and influencing the public on the topic of environmental issues (Gephart et al.).
When we see the green color, we think of nature, growth and health. Greens generally have a calming effect and goes well with other colors like blue and white. For this reason, it is common to see the use of the color white and blue with the green in any image, website or advertisement. These colors are looked upon as cool and calm (Color Green - The Color of Wealth).
In the images given, one finds plenty of green colors. As is apparent from the advertisements, one image focuses on baby health, while the other is about saving fuel and reducing CO2 emissions. The ad on baby makes use of different tints and hues of the green color, and one can see the green in the background and even in the text. The only other color used is for the skin of the baby, who is wearing a white dress. The color white again goes very well with the green. One look at the image gives the viewer the knowledge that this is an ad for a natural product for the baby that is good for his health and gives him a nature based nutrition.
As for the other ad, one finds the use of nature elements like the blue sky, white clouds, and green grass. The only unnatural expression is the use of green leaves to represent the fuel dispenser at the Petrol filling station that is shown to be made of green leaves and wood branches. When we see the ad, we are forced to think of fuel and nature, thus connecting the two. The consumer thinks as to if his behavior is harming the environment in any way, and what he can do about it. The text in the ad is in white and talks about lowering CO2 emission and fuel consumption, as well as offers free Nitrogen for the tires.
Green is undoubtedly the color of nature and stands for freshness, and growth. It connects one strongly to health and safety. The color is known to carry a healing power and offers rest to our eyes. It also stands for stability and endurance, and in traffic lights, it is the opposite of red that means danger. However, different shades of green can lead to different meanings. For example, the dark green color is linked to money and even ambition and jealousy (Color & Meaning In Advertising).

Green washing

However, rising concern about green advertising is that only about40% of environmental claims made in these ads have been found to be true, and information is either vague or untrue. There is a need to curb those green ads carrying misleading information on environmental use and these kind of ads have fall under “greenwashing,” as they only add to public confusion and green wash their primary problems. The consumers may be doing nothing for the environment when they switch to those brands or feel-good product that promise environmental conservation (Gephart et al.). Some sort of environmental messaging is used in marketing and advertisement of food and household cleaning products. It is essential to evaluate the level of authenticity behind the claims made, considering the growing prevalence of green advertisements. Currently there are scarce regulations regarding the environmental claims made in green advertisements and thus one cannot undermine the risks of Green washing.
Future research related to green advertising and corresponding environmental behaviors could explore additional variables that influence the attitude towards these styles of advertising in general on specific advertisements. The role of advertising is changing in the society and marketers can benefit from the studies and encourage responsible consumer attitudes toward environmentally with the right products and authentic green advertisements. The recent findings reflect that females are more aware of the environment issues and carry more positive attitudes towards the environment focused advertisements. Generally speaking, the consumers are willing to pay more for these types of green products. It is the responsibility of the marketers and advertisers to enhance their green marketing efforts, by educating the masses with the correct information (Haytko and Erika).
A future direction would be to study the content of current green advertisements and make an analysis to see what kind of messages are present and if the environmental claims are authenticated. The true environmental progress will get hampered because of the unsubstantiated claims made by the ever-growing number of green advertisements. Clearly, further research is needed to provide a better understanding of the conceptual foundations of attitude

References

"Color Green - The Color of Wealth." Colorcombos. Color Combos, 1 Jan. 2013. Web. <http://www.colorcombos.com/color-green-article.html>.
"Color and Marketing." Empower-yourself-with-color-psychology. Color Psychology, 1 Jan. 2015. Web. <http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-and- marketing.html>.
"Color & Meaning In Advertising." Color-wheel-pro.com. Color Wheel, 1 Jan. 2013. Web. <http://www.frankwbaker.com/color_in_ads.htm>.
Gephart, Jessica., Emenike, Mary., and Lowery,Bretz., "“Greenwashing” or Green Advertising? An Analysis of Print Ads for Food and Household Cleaning Products from 1960-2008." 1.1 (2010). Print.
Haytko, Diana L., and Erika Matulich. "Green Advertising and Environmentally Responsible Consumer Behaviors: Linkages Examined." Journal of Management and Marketing Research 1 (2008): 2.