How has the increased awareness of ethical production affected brand identities, specifically in the case of McDonald’s and Primark?
- Inconvenient truth- proof of the increased awareness of ethical production and how it is going to affect the future of humanity.
- Green washing- how this effects the brand image and especially in the case of McDonalds
- Consumer fetishism- even though Primark had reports of their clothing being made unethically people continues to buy there. Does it really matter?
Green Washing
"Greenwashing," a pejorative term derived from the term "whitewashing," was coined by environmental activists to describe efforts by corporations to portray themselves as environmentally responsible in order to mask environmental wrongdoings. The term "greenwashing" was originally confined to describing misleading instances of environmental advertising, but as corporations' efforts to portray themselves as environmentally virtuous have diversified and proliferated, so have charges of greenwashing. The term is now used to refer to a wider range or corporate activities, including, but not limited to, certain instances of environmental reporting, event sponsorship, the distribution of educational materials, and the creation of "front groups." However, regardless of the strategy employed, the main objective of greenwashing is to give consumers and policy makers the impression that the company is taking the necessary steps to manage its ecological footprint.
What's wrong with greenwashing?
1. Most obviously, greenwashing is misleading. It attempts to deceive us, making us think that a company with an awful environmental track record actually has a great one. Not all environmental advertising is dishonest, of course. But any advertising legitimately labelled as "greenwashing" is dishonest, and that's a problem.
2. Greenwashing could result in consumer and regulator complacency. If one corporation in a particular company gets away with greenwashing, other corporations will follow suit, thereby creating an industry-wide illusion of environmental sustainability, rather than sustainability itself. This creation of the illusion of environmental sustainability could have dire social consequences as consumers will continue to use products and support companies that further environmental degradation and reduce the quality of living conditions for future generations (Davis, 1992).
3. Greenwashing may also engender cynicism: if consumers come to expect self-congratulatory ads from even the most environmentally backward corporations, this could render consumers skeptical of even sincere portrayals of legitimate corporate environmental successes. Thus well-meaning companies, companies committed to responsible behaviour with regard to the environment, have every reason to be critical of companies that greenwash
Unethical Production
Marks and Spencer's, Next, Ralph Lauren, DKNY, GAP, Converse, Banana Republic, Land's End, Levi's. And so the list of brands go on and on. What do they all have in common? According to a deeply depressing report (pdf) by the International Textile Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF), the factories in Asia contracted to make their products are still responsible for shocking working practices.
More than a decade after sweatshop labour for high street brands became a mainstream issue, and after plenty of companies have instituted monitoring of their supply chains, the problem still seems endemic right across the global clothing and footwear sector.
Many of the factories supplying the brands likely to dominate the Olympics in 2012, such as Adidas, Nike, Slazenger, Speedo and Puma, "are routinely breaking every rule in the book when it comes to labour rights", according to the ITGLWF.
The list of brands ultimately sourcing from the 83 factories surveyed in the report is so comprehensive, it seems to make a mockery of the whole idea that the high street has cleaned up its act.
Factories in three countries – the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka – were surveyed, and not one of them paid a living wage to their combined 100,000-strong workforce. Many of them didn't even pay the legal minimum wage. What the report also makes clear is that this is a gender issue: 76% of the surveyed workforce are women. Globalised supply chains exploit predominantly female labour. It's an irony that probably escapes most of the women who do the bulk of high street shopping in the west. Women shopping for products made by other, underpaid, exploited, women.
What's more, things seem to be getting worse, rather than better. Employment is becoming more precarious as more workers are put on to temporary contracts, day labour, on call rather than with permanent jobs. That enables employers to dodge holiday pay, sick pay and written contracts. Employers also imposed compulsory overtime, lower wages and higher production targets on workers on these short-term contracts.
Such precarious employment makes it harder for trade unions to organise and recruit, because contracts are not renewed if the worker has been involved in trade union activity. On average, 25% of workers in Indonesia were short-term or temporary, while in the Philippines it rose to 85% in one factory, 50% at another.
In Sri Lanka, wages were paid on productivity targets – despite such a practice being illegal. At one factory in Girigara, basic pay was cut if targets set by the management were not achieved. At another factory owned by the same company in Katunayake, workers didn't receive any incentive pay unless the entire quota was reached, but workers reported that the targets were impossible to meet so they never got their bonuses, even if they missed toilet breaks and rest periods to try and reach the target. At other factories, workers were forced to work overtime to meet productivity targets.
The report found that excessive overtime was the "norm" in sportswear and leisurewear factories in Indonesia; workers in all the factories surveyed were doing between 10 and 40 hours of overtime a week. There were incidents of mental and physical abuse when workers failed to reach production targets – in one factory, 40 workers were locked in an unventilated room without access to toilet facilities, water and food for over three hours as a punishment.
In Sri Lanka, workers were forced to work up to 130 hours per month in overtime, and anyone asking to leave would be verbally harassed. In the Philippines, 24% of workers said that they did not receive additional pay for their overtime. Typical hours can be 6am to 8pm.
Many of the workers at these factories in Sri Lanka are young women from rural areas. They are told when recruited that the factories prefer them not to marry, and some companies even carry out pregnancy tests to weed out pregnant women. Sexual intimidation and abuse was common.
In many cases, the employers' behaviour was illegal, but the report – which picked factories at random – points out that what makes laws effective is a well resourced inspection regime. Without inspection, legislation is meaningless.
It's worth adding at the end of this catalogue of abuse that the UK Department for International Development (DfID) has just axed funding to the International Labour Organisation, one of the oldest international bodies in the world trying to improve labour standards. The ILO brings out a report on Friday in conjunction with the Asian Development Bank on women's employment patterns across Asia and inequality
Task 3
title.
Key Concept- full report on unethical production Primark
Key concept- what makes and ethical brand identity
Task 3
title.
How has the increased
awareness of ethical production affected brand identities?
key Concept- Green washing with in the oil and gas industry.
application- Information on how the oil and gas industry green wash advertising campaigns.
Key concept- green washing and Legitimacy Mcdonalds ad campaigns
application- Information on how Mcdonalds green washes there adverts.
Key concept- greenwashing with in the food industry
Application- how the food industry is portrayed in the public eye and how its relevant to green washing.
Key concept- Primarks stand point on ethical production
Application- applying this information to the reality, War on want text.
Key Concept- consumer views on Ethical Production
Application- proof of commodity fetishism
The alternative movement for resourch
and freedom society,London, 2008, Fashion Victims 2, http://www.waronwant.org/campaigns/supermarkets/fashion-victims/inform/16360-fashion-victims-ii
Application proof of unethical production within Primark after initial warnings.
Wally olins . (2004). Brands on a Global stage. In: wally
Olins on Brands . London: Thames and Hudson. 90-110.
application- Introducing Branding
The Fundamentals of branding
Key concept- What a brands need target audience
application- analysing the need to appear green. brand.
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