Marketing has always shaped the world. Whether through promoting and preaching various religions in thousands of years ago, or selling a car today based on a special stereo, marketing has always been around in a certain form.

The problem with marketing today is it can be used to portray anything with a positive light. It is also seen everywhere. One cannot escape marketing and not have their lives influenced by marketers messages. There is also a weaker balancing power as media is becoming more controlled by political and corporate interests. This is leading to people believing things that are harmful to themselves and those around them.

There’s several examples of misleading marketing. Let’s take “All Natural” for example. The legal definition of this word is very loosely based. The following image is a representation of Snapple which displays the “All Natural” label. You be the judge…

Another thing that marketing impacts is Political campaigns. This can lead to terrible people realizing power. Rick Perry was running for Republican Primaries until his extreme views were turned against him. However political ads like this can still get people to believe in hateful messages and give terrible people power:

Despite the negative things that can come from marketing, there are several positives that can also be taken. In this class we have used negative and positive examples of using sustainability as a selling point. I’ve learned that it’s up to the marketer to be creative and differentiate yourself from “Green Washers” by making complex information easily available. Several companies use websites to explain their sourcing, others have interactive videos explaining processes. We’ve learned that mediums that create the largest levels of involvement are the best for sustainable products. Brand advocates are important to spread the word of mouth.

This course on sustainable marketing has further confirmed that corporations can abuse people and there are not enough checks and controls into place to stop this. Profit is the bottom line and it is a problem that has ruined countless lives and will only get worse. I think business schools need to have a stronger emphasis on ethics but would Coca Cola want to hire us if we thought it was wrong to make them more money by putting a leaf on a bottle??

Besides being cynical about it, I can sell people things by adding colours decals, adding apparently meaningless words that seem legitimate, and packaging with some leaves and mentioning something about nature. This won’t last forever, people will figure it out eventually and call out the corporations… but what will they have up their sleeves then?

You know there’s a pretty big problem when an 11 year old is doing a Ted Talks on our food system. I’ve personally been aware of problems from a young age because of the environment I was raised in and the people that influenced me. My Uncle owns a factory pig barn in Manitoba and I can distinctly remember the sows in cages only being able to stand or lie down. The male pigs that would walk around the corridors putting the females in heat. The giant syringes that would be used to impregnate the females. The room that would be cleared weekly filled with huge dead pigs. Finally, the pens filled with fearful babies that would be picked up and moved while screaming by their hind legs.

The design of this system is flawed and is poisoning North America. Within the past decades there’s more meat recalls than ever before. Even as I was in the grocery store yesterday, there’s was a massive recall on anything with Presidents Choice beef in it. It’s amazing to think that there can be anything living in these meats after the processing it goes through including several ammonia baths (according to the documentary Food Inc.). Also more than 1 in 90 children is now diagnosed with autism. There are many arguments relating this to the chemicals in our foods.

Where there’s demand, someone will ultimately find a way to supply. North American eating habits demand an incredible amount of beef, poultry, and pork. Corporations are competing for economies of scale and this is now more important than ever as Americans are getting poorer. Economies of scale in the food system cause other problems like pollution and sickness.

Birke Baehr comments on the importance to reduce consumption of genetically modified products. This is of course very difficult as government subsidies have led to decades of huge corn supplies. Innovation has found a use for corn in almost anything. Going to the grocery store, especially in the USA, shows that corn is in over 3/4 of pre-made foods.

Birke also argues for the re-adoption of sustainable farming practices. Humans have known proper farming techniques for hundreds of years. However recent technological advances have allowed us to dismiss these traditional practices and create synthetic nutrients for crops. This is following a very dangerous trend towards desertification. If technology cannot innovate to lessen our toll on the earth, mass starvations and die offs will occur.

Birke says education is the first step. The biggest fear is that we’ve already missed a generation. Kids learn from their parents and many parents have been put through a corporate designed world of consumption – have it right now, why wait!!

In my opinion it starts with the media. The media has become a corporate pawn and thinks twice before slandering corporate interests. Mainstream media needs to take a critical approach on these factory farms and unsustainable practices. Then it is up for people to rebel against these food choices.

The system needs to be redesigned but it’s easy to keep poisoning the masses with addicting foods and keeping them uneducated.