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The Ecofont is a brilliant invention, but its name is ridiculous. The idea is that, by punching undetectable holes in every letter of a typeface, you can use up to 20 percent less ink for document printing.
The font is free to download at www.ecofont.eu, but the firm that produced it is trying to make a buck by creating custom Ecofonts for corporate clients.
As is the case with almost every area of marketing today, the smartest move the firm can make is to pretend it's saving the planet.
That's where the name comes in. "Eco-" and "green" are among the great advertising buzzwords of our time, like the prefix "i-" in recent years or "e-" in the late '90s.
Green marketing is effective because it snags us where we don't expect it: in the self-righteous section of the ego.
So, for instance, it's not just that a 5,000-employee company can save $125,000 a year on printing costs by switching to an Ecofont, as National Geographic reported this month. It's that the Ecofont-using company can "show how it integrates human and environmental interests into its daily business practices," according to the Ecofont Web site.
The site doesn't quantify the impact that printer ink is having right now on environmental wellness (we're left to assume that Epson tankers are leaking toner into Alaskan harbors), but it's not important. The point is that you, the typing client, can show how much you care about the planet.
This is an especially big deal to my generation. We want everyone to know just how much we care - about global warming, about HIV/AIDS, about war in Sudan. Name a concert after it, and we're there with money to spend. Not necessarily to take substantive action, but certainly to buy the T-shirt.
Perhaps that's too broad a generalization, but it seems to be working well enough in the marketing world.
At the CVS Pharmacy on Assembly Street, you can buy 32 oz. of Clorox Green Works Natural Glass and Surface Cleaner for $4.29. The bottle certainly looks eco-friendly, with its green color scheme and its claim of "plant- and mineral-based ingredients."
But pin the Clorox Company's PR people down on it, and they're hard-pressed to explain how using this product actually helps the planet. Vicky Bullock, a consumer services representative, offered up the fact that most of the ingredients are biodegradable.
Once again, no statistics were available on the impact of indoor cleaners on the environment.
The cleaner is a full 20 cents more expensive than Formula 409, and, unlike 409, it is not disinfectant.
Green marketing is everywhere. At the same CVS, Poland Springs water comes in the "Eco-Shape" bottle, which features 30 percent less plastic and a smaller label. But anyone who really wants to stop growing our landfills has already stopped buying bottled water.
The point here is not that all schemes to help the environment are useless. It's that green marketing, like all marketing, is full of half-truths. Ultimately it's about recycling one thing: your money.
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