Week 12: Ad Breakdown & Activism Sites

Part 1: Ad Breakdown

I decided to use ads for products which I use, and consider to be eco-friendly, and then go a bit further and try to find out what the true nature of the product is. I chose Irish Spring soap which has an eco-labeling on the back of the box which says it is considered eco-friendly, and its ad on the internet shows the pristine "Irish" environment, the crystal spring and lush greenery. Of course, the entire ad and image being sold to you is that of fresh natural processes, the wonder of life, the perfection of nature being equated to the fresh, perfect feeling you will receive upon using the product.

I used the Organic Consumers Association website to try and figure out what is actually in my bar of soap, and as most would assume the label eco-friendly couldn't be farther from the truth. According the links from the website, my bar of soap contains 1 & 4 Dioxane's which have both been linked to cancer and to developmental/reproductive toxicity. The idea that advertising and connecting the consumer with one or more forms of environmental brainwashing with absolutely no regulation as to the validity of the marketing, can get me to use a soap which is potentially poisoning me, is a mortifying fact.