eBay: the Green Online Giant?

eBay has always been about “reuse” – one man’s trash, and all that. So in a way, they’ve always supported a “greener” way of shopping. Well, the online giant is now capitalizing on that with a new spin on the old sell.

Now they realize the world is ready to shop greener, and almost without changing anything, their messaging has changed. Same online garage sale, now wrapped in green. And you know what? I don’t mind the new message. I don’t call it “greenwashing,” really. It’s just recognizing a new reason people are buying.


(It's really just a small part of their huge site, impossible to find from their main page. And they call it their "Green Team.")

eBay’s also taking other baby steps to help the planet, with their Giving Works - a way to donate a portion of sales to nonprofit causes - and MicroPlace - a micro lending service that supports sustainable development.

Hey, if every big company like this is making incremental changes in the way they do business, that’s a good thing. Now when they promote it, they need to drastically improve their advertising creative. (See my post from two days ago, below.)

(I got this tidbit from PSFK, “inspiration to make things better,” and they got it from TreeHugger.)

Why Does “Green” Creative Suck?

I’ve been spending a good deal of time lately seeking out "good"/cause/green/belief-brand advertising. And I gotta be honest, most of it blows. It's like the companies that do good don't know how to hire a decent agency, and the decent agencies don't see the opportunity in building a brand while doing something good.

I hope there will come a day when ad geniuses will see the value in having something good to say. And vice versa – the day when companies doing good will see the value in better (much better) creative.

Case in point (yawn):

There are notable exceptions, many featured on this blog. Like THIS, and THIS, and THIS. Oh, and I also like the Dove stuff. (I'll tackle that in some upcoming post.)

Good golly, can’t we do better?