]]]]]]]]]]]]     ENVIRONMENT IS '90S AD BUZZWORD    [[[[[[[[[[[[[
                          by Paul Tharp               (12/6/1989)
       (From the New York Post, 5 December 1989, p. 53:1)

           [Kindly uploaded by Freeman 10602PANC]

   The advertising fad for 1990 apparently is going to be helping
the environment.
   The word  coined by the  industry to describe  the endeavor is
``green.''   You'll  hear  ``green''  tagged  onto  all  kinds of
products, much the  way ``lite'' was  used in the  last decade on
just about everything we put in our mouths.
   Some efforts  will be  hype, and  some probably  will help the
environment, if change isn't too costly.
   Many companies  are taking the  environmental issue seriously,
investing millions of dollars in  new products and packaging that
creates less garbage.
   Procter & Gamble's effort to reduce the use of plastic bottles
is  simple  and  saves  valuable  shelf  space.   It  is  putting
concentrated Tide,  Downy, Mr. Clean  and Liquid  Ivory in small,
biodegradable  soft  packs that  you  mix with  water  in another
container, fore  example, your old  plastic one.   The soft packs
are sold in Canada and soon will be in the U.S.
   Colgate-Palmolive   Co.   is   testing   similar   packs  with
dishwashing liquids Palmolive and Octagon in Connecticut.
   McDonalds  is  asking  customers at  100  of  its  New England
locations to separate paper from styrofoam wastes.
   A catalogue company, Seventh  Generation, of South Burlington,
Vermont, is racking up sales  with products that help the planet.
Catalogue  items include  recycled paper  products, chemical-free
furniture polish, biodegradable trash bags and handy beverage can
crushers.
   Jeffrey Hollander, its chief executive, said the firm has sold
enough energy efficient light bulbs  to prevent 150,000 pounds of
acid rain  [from generator  smoke stacks]  and sold  enough water
saving devices to save 13.8 million gallons of water.
   But good things don't always get good receptions.
   One  New   Jersey  company  is   selling  biodegradable  paper
containers  that  replace  plastic  takeout  containers  used  at
supermarkets and other food counters.
   The leakproof paper  units are cheaper  than plastic and won't
melt in microwaves the  way plastics do --  but the food industry
has given them a lukewarm reception.
   ``It's like having  a cure for cancer,  but nobody wants it,''
said  Michael  Levy,  president  of  DELIVAT  Containers  Inc. of
Paterson, N.J.
   ``The  buyers tell  me, `We  know there's  a problem  with the
environment,  but unless  someone holds  a gun  to our  heads, we
won't make a change.''
   Two big supermarket  chains are testing  the paper containers,
Shop Rite  and Key  Food, but Levy  said plastics  are ``just too
ingrained to disappear overnight.''
   Laws,  however,  may  hasten  the  demise  of  plastic takeout
containers.  New Jersey  is considering a  three-cent levy on the
takeout throwaway containers, and Suffolk County's Legislature is
holding hearings on a possible ban of the plastic throwaways.
   Meanwhile,  Levy  said  it's  an  uphill  battle  to  convince
purchasing managers there is profit  to be made in helping Mother
Nature.
   ``The  paper  containers are  up  to 20  percent  cheaper than
plastics, meaning a  store can make perhaps  a nickel more profit
on the same pint of coleslaw.''
   The rise in ecology-linked products  is also raising some sour
grapes.
   Hubert   H.  Humphrey   III,  Minnesota's   attorney  general,
triggered  some  ad industry  alarms  when  he said  in  a recent
speech:
   ``The  selling of  the  environment may  make  the cholesterol
craze look like a Sunday school  picnic ... [and] ... will become
the next great battleground'' between regulators and advertisers.
   Who will manage the ``green'' market?
   One   newly   organized  group,   the   Alliance   for  Social
Responsibility, said it  would review products  and issue ``green
seal of approval'' to those it deems safe and friendly to nature.
   The  group,  composed  of  scientists,  environmentalists  and
advertising  executives,   alarmed  some  ad   people  by  saying
eligibility for the seals also  would depend on whether a company
is ``hiring enough minorities and women.''
   Regardless, its  first labels of  approval will  be awarded on
Earth Day, April 22,  which is turning out  to be a marketing day
for the ``green'' theme.

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