Brand Marketing Tips by Steve Poppe » global warming

Global Warming…the brand.

Steve Poppe — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:36:13 +0000

Today is Blog Action Day, the topic for which is the environment.

Global warming is a horrific, long-term problem for the planet. The trapping of carbon dioxide, methane and other noxious gases is altering the planet’s flora and fauna in ways we can’t imagine in our day-to-day world view. But the brand “global warming” is in some ways even more insidious. Who ever came up with the term created a brand that’s quite a euphemism. When has the word warm really had such a bad connotation? And how about “climate change” or “greenhouse gases,” those terms shiver me spleen.

Methane gas escaping into our atmosphere accounts for about 1/3 of all greenhouse emissions and stays there for 10 years. Carbon dioxide, the most common gaseous emission, lingers 100 plus years. Are you getting a warm feeling? Not me, I’m pissed.

Methane, carbon dioxide and the euphemistic words used to describe the ecosystem-changing area above our planet need to be demonized. No more happy words! For a society that curses and drops the f-bomb as we do, you’d think we could come up with some more apt, creative words to describe what’s enshrouding our planet. Here are some starter words to think about: toxic, deadly, cancerous, poisonous, noxious, odious, grisly… (Please comment with your entries, I’d enjoy hearing them. Here’s one: Global Warning!)

So on Blog Action Day I could ask you to shut off you lights, use more energy efficient appliances, stop flushing for number 1, and say “no bag please” to the deli guy, but I’d rather you change the way you refer to what happening to the planet. Let’s get more indignant. Let’s get angry! Words matter. Peace!

(Photo by New York Times, and EPA)

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The Noxious Olympic Games

Steve Poppe — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:22:00 +0000

Historically, the Summer Olympic Games create one lasting image that is remembered globally for years and years. Jesse Owens in Berlin in ’36. The ’68 games in Mexico City with Tommie Smith and John Carlos and their black power salute. Nadia Comaneci’s dismount pose in Montreal ’76. The Munich Olympics with masked terrorists on the balcony.

It is my hope that the one picture we all remember from the upcoming Olympics is the picture of an athlete in a gauze mask, beneath a gunmetal gray, iodine-infused sky. This lasting image of the pollution in Beijing might just wake up enough citizens of the world so that we unite and act to reduce pollution and global warming. The image of the earth’s most finely tuned physical machines, our athletes, rejecting the noxiousness that is Beijing is a fitting symbol and that change is sorely needed.

I pray for poor weather so that the smog does not blow away and the world can really see — in hi-def — what we are doing to the environment. Peace!

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Two climates.

Steve Poppe — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:39:00 +0000

I while ago I wrote about how 1 of every 3 cars in Puerto Rico is a new or lightly used Susuki (research while driving around.) Also, about how a production boom in Chinese automobiles is underway and that many of those low-cost cars are selling in Africa, where safety and emission standards are low. Well, today I read of Maruti Suzuki producing a car in India that retails for US$5,000. Anyone want to bet what the dominant car brand will be in a few years? But scarier than that is the “People’s Car,” coming out next year in India which will retail for US$2,500. The producer? Tata Motors. Can’t you almost smell the fumes?

If you think the globe is warming at an alarming rate now, wait 10 years when there are a half billion more cars on the road. The closet anthropologist in me says “Buy Tee-shirt stocks.”

Hopefully, we will be hearing much about global warming from the U.S. presidential candidates in the coming year and that’s a good thing. To me this suggests two of the most critical topics of our times: planetary climate and U.S. economic climate. With a half billion more cars on the planet, the trees in Vermont will start dying. If everything is manufactured overseas and at a fraction of the cost, the US economy will start dying. We need to be able to manufacture at a lower cost here in the states. Anyone have any answers? I do, but you may think me a foo (thanks Mr. T.)

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