Although Nike's approach to sustainable shoes is justified by lower costs, it holds lessons for marketers justifying going green because "green sells".

The company's earlier move into sustainable shoes was a flop. Consumers of their products were not interested in sustainability; they wanted cool.

Now the company uses bits of old shoes in the soles of new ones, but doesn't tell anybody. Although, given I am writing this piece, presumably they are hoping the word leaks out to those that care.

It should not be regarded as encouraging for those in business who think we can consume our way out of environmental crisis by promoting expressly "green" products.

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Leaders from the food-packaging and chemical industries met this week in secret, hammering out a media strategy for the promotion and defense of BPA.   You know, bisphenol-A, the endocrine-disrupting chemical that is now known to be a contributor toward various cancers, heart disease,  and diabetes, particularly in infants and young children, and yet is widely found in baby bottles and most canned goods.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel obtained documents from the meeting that outlined the thinking of its participants.  Basically, the group discussed the fact that science won't come to the industry's defense, because the only studies that are favorable to BPA are industry-sponsored studies, which, for some reason, the media won't buy; so they turned their attention to ways they could hoodwink or frighten the publc. 

Strategies discussed: 

• suggesting that BPA is the only way to keep canned food from contamination;
• suggesting that the end of BPA means the end of canned foods, and therefore, an undue burden on poor minorities;
• suggesting that the end of BPA means the end of baby food;
• suggesting that the replacement for BPA will be even worse; and, my personal favorite:
• hiring a pregnant woman to be the spokesperson for BPA.

The group agreed to spend $500,000 to survey Americans to gauge public attitudes about BPA and canned foods, so they may come up with more "creative" solutions to their problem yet.

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Communications professionals in Ghana have called on the government to implement a National Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Framework.

The call was made at a trade fair organized by the Junior Chamber International (JCI) Ghana and supported by other local business groups.

According to the report in the Ghanaian Chronicle, the group called "for a regulatory body to be set up to regulate corporate social responsibility to meet international standards, adding Listed Companies on the Ghana Stock Exchange should be required to report on their CSR."

Mr. Kweku Rockson, a senior lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Journalism, "urged the government to create a public policy framework, including legislation for the corporate social responsibility to check the operations of companies in the country."

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An update from The Scientist (free reg'n req'd) on the Merck/Elsevier story: there were six other fake journals issued on behalf of unnamed sponsors.

We previously covered Elsevier's publication of an apparently peer-reviewed serious journal for Merck, that was in fact a Merck-sponsored promotional tool.

Now The Scientist has found that there were seven such journals published between 2000 and 2005 by Elsevier's Australian operation.

"a "series of sponsored article publications" were put out by their Australia office and bore the Excerpta Medica imprint from 2000 to 2005. These titles were: the Australasian Journal of General Practice, the Australasian Journal of Neurology, the Australasian Journal of Cardiology, the Australasian Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, the Australasian Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine, and the Australasian Journal of Bone & Joint. Elsevier declined to provide the names of the sponsors of these titles, according to the company spokesperson."

If they can, would Merck and the other major drug companies please start denying their involvement in these others so we can see who the unnamed drug companies are?

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Merck paid medical publisher Elsevier to publish a few volumes of Merck-favored research with the appearance of a serious peer-reviewed journal.

Instead, the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine was in effect just company-sponsored marketing material without the sponsorship disclosure.

While the serious ethical breach by Merck is receiving much attention, I'd like to draw attention also to the bizarre ethical breach by the publisher.

Elsevier has a reputation as a serious publisher of peer-reviewed science, technical and medical journals. It knew that by attaching its name to this journal it would lead people into assuming that the same standards would apply to the information and views it contained.

Elsevier has a responsibility for its mind print. The information that it publishes can and will be taken and used for better or worse. Elsevier's corporate social responsibility page, however, prefers to talk about philanthropic and environmental initiatives.

Time for them to re-center on why they exist. Clue: it was not to squeeze an extra bit of revenue out of their brand by lending credence to Merck's blindingly unethical misstep.

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The provider of language training services is using its proprietary language software to record the world's endangered languages.

I do not usually post stories about philanthropic gestures as so much of it is plain old greenwash to divert attention from the way it does business.

This example, discussed in the Influential Marketing Blog, warrants a good mention, though. Check out Rohit Bhargava's post for his take on the move as an example of good "strategic CSR". Communities with endangered languages can document their language using the technology and they own the output for their own free use.

If you are going to do PR, at least use that marketing budget as Rosetta Stone have done and leverage your company's core competences for social good in the process.

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The Responsible Marketing Blog highlights an example by an Argentinian bank of responsible communication involving a transgendered person.

There. Was that so difficult?

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