How Chris Arnold pushed green up the marketing agenda
Chris Arnold has a proud track record of working with charities, education projects and campaigns centred on the developing world.
‘I really enjoy the idea of creating positive social change,’ says the sparky creative partner of Creative Orchestra, his manner genuine rather than grandiose.
For him environmentalism is an extension of humanitarianism. ‘If you care about people the next stage is caring about the world they live in,’ he remarks.
So in recent years he has focused his attention on the green agenda and has aired some thought–provoking ideas through his ethical marketing blog on Brand Republic and his recently published book ‘Ethical Marketing and the New Consumer’.
Take his views on local shops and cafes. Arnold gleefully challenges the conventional liberal view that brands such as Starbucks and Tesco are bad because they destroy the market for local shops.
Arnold’s argument goes like this: while big corporations are becoming more transparent, have environmental and social policies and – in the case of Starbucks – sell 100% Fairtrade coffee, the same cannot always be said for the small greengrocer or coffee shop.
The self–confessed Hugh Fearnley–Whittingstall lookalike is also fed–up with the way that the media, and he singles out The Guardian as being a particularly bad offender, attacks brands which try to communicate their green credentials. He also highlights that green as an issue has been hijacked by the anti–capitalist brigade and vegan groups.
‘There's a lot of twisted debate, it's very hard for consumers to decipher the facts from the spin,’ he comments.
But to read into all of this that Arnold, who has more than 20 years' ad industry experience including a spell as creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi, is some sort of cheerleader for big business would be a mistake.
Over the years he has had his scrapes with one corporation or another and even refused to work on a brief for a big consumer client at Saatchi's because he felt it was exploitative.
Despite the tricky green landscape, Arnold argues marketers must not shy away from ethical marketing but need to deploy honesty to avoid the dreaded greenwash tag.
‘Just tell the truth,’ says Arnold. ‘The consumer is not expecting you to be an angel. They want to see you are repenting a bit and moving in the right direction.’
He dreams of the day when oil companies stop claiming to be green. Instead, Arnold says, such firms should admit their shortcomings – yet also be bold about the necessity of their product to everyday life.
Arnold's controversial brand of humanitarianism coupled with environmentalism will probably win him as many doubters as it will acolytes. But you rather suspect that this is just the way he likes it.
