Christopher Swain recently jumped in the Atlantic Ocean and is taking a 1000-mile swim from Marblehead, Massachusetts to Washington D.C. to promote environmental awareness. This is good. I mean, it's a step up from Zero the Hero coming to class on the 100th day of school and promoting Cheerios, but there is still marketing behind everything. In Christopher Swain's case, his website dirtyforswain.com, clearly holds a marketing deal with Timberland's Earthkeepers. The tag line for his campaign is "What will YOU do for Swain?" Clearly, based on what I'm looking at on this site, he wants us to follow him on Twitter, take pictures of his journey on Flickr, and buy some Timberland Earthkeepers! That's his message. Simple as that.
However, after diving into his Changents site with blogs on how to get involved and who's out there type of stuff, I realize that yes, of course, there ARE people doing things out there in the real world. But what's the point of this man swimming, other than to sell more Earthkeepers? The people who truly want to help save the environment are doing it and the Dirty for Swain campaign is not helping with this motive, besides inspiring kids who are in elementary and middle school. Let's face it people. We, as adults, can't all just shake off this Green movement by looking towards our kids and hoping they get the inspiration they need to someday fix our environmental problems. We, as adults, have to take responsibility. And no, that doesn't mean we must go buy the Earthkeepers for our family.
So far, this effort has not worked. If you look under the "Take Action" tab and select the United States as the location, you will find a whopping 2 posts in the forum. This is the result and this is the message. Why talk about someone who likes to swim the Atlantic Ocean when you can talk about launching a new Big Green Bus!? Why talk about either?
We are at the day when it should be very easy to navigate through networks and start local movements and to let leaders stand out among a level playing field. Are we sending the right message? Are we more connected from 10 years ago? Is it easier to find green movements in your neighborhood? Not in my neighborhood at least. Things are being done through self-motivation. Marketing can be such a powerful gathering tool if used to send the right message.
One problem is that Timberland doesn't want to reveal the solution of minimizing the impact of leather tanneries...Buy less leather. Instead, it has become a trend for Earthkeepers because that's how movements are run these days...through marketing and consumption and not through facilitated communication that really holds the power to make change happen.
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