Only .05% of Green Marketing Claims Not False or Misleading

Green marketing is said to give the choice to the consumer. And with the precipitous rise of brands like Whole Foods and Toyota Prius, consumers are more aware than ever of the impact their purchases make. But what if the vast majority of the messaging they receive is wrong? What if, according to researchers, only 1 in 1753 marketing messages from green campaigns are not either patently false, or risk misleading audiences? [PDF]

The claim made by State of Green Business 2008 seems shocking, but is it true? And does the marketing only hold true for greenwashing campaigns, or is it an issue across the board? At least for now, greenwashing is under scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission for the first time in a decade.

Green Advertising image by Payton Chung [cc, 2.0]