Media is typically a reflection of the mentality of the market. So if you’re thinking about jumping on the green bandwagon with your company, product or service, without any real muscle behind your mission, you might want to first take a look at this new animated series from ABC.
The Goode Family is created by Mike Judge, the brains behind Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill. The show takes an arguably hilarious shot at about every green, sustainability and politically correct social norm out there.
The Goode Family premise from their Wikipedia page:
The Goodes are an obsessively “green” family who live an overly politically correct lifestyle. They have solar panels on their house, harvest rainwater for use in an outdoor shower and plant-watering, garden in their front yard, drive a hybrid car, recycle, reuse shopping bags, etc. They are also vegans. The family lives by the motto “What Would Al Gore Do?”, a spin on the Evangelical Christian motto “What Would Jesus Do?“.
You can catch it starting this Friday, June 12, at 8:30 pm on ABC.
Once you watch it, overlay the sarcasm over your own green initiatives and see how you stack up.
Does this show make you want to run for eco cover, or do you think it’s actually good for environmentalism?
Tags: ABC, Beavis and Butthead, green, King of the Hill, political correctness, sustainability, The Goode Family
Posted in: Consuming Green Stuff, Green Marketing, Greenwashing, Sustainable Marketing
Thanks for the pointer. I just watched the first three episodes on Hulu. Hilarious! Poking fun at taking sustainability too seriously – perfect.
Good morning, Peter. I’ve got it Tivo’d for Friday, and I have a hunch it’s going to be good given its timeliness. A great example of the kind of greenwashing practitioners that might get bit by this kind of satirical bug is Regions Banks’ new GreenLife Checking & Savings account. They’ve taken basic operational stuff with ebanking and recycled checks and now call them “Green Banking.” http://tinyurl.com/l5nynp
If it makes the more vocal greenies tone down their rhetoric, it’ll be doing everybody a favor. Mr & Mrs Middle America don’t like being preached at…but I fully believe they’ll listen to an argument that is well presented.
But we have to overcome the damage done by the liars (and lawyers) in Greenpeace and the Sierra Club.
- Jim
Jim, I tend to agree with your thoughts. We all know thinking and acting sustainably is incredibly important. It’s the fringe element that gives all things a bad rep. I believe that poking some fun at the whole environmental mantra is actually good for the cause. Thanks for commenting.