Greenwashing Meets Pinkwashing

As a Chicago company, we're big Bears fans - and we all try to get out to as many home games as we can. Last year we were pretty disappointed to see cheap, non-woven polypropylene bags given away to everyone in attendance.

This past Sunday, another 40,000 more cheap reusable bags were distributed among fans. This year's sponsor, another huge corporation like last year's, used this marketing gimmick to tie their name to two good causes - environmental conservation and breast cancer awareness.  People who took these bags were instant walking advertisements for that corporation. And the bags were cheap, so the likelihood that they'll be used again is slim. In fact, we saw hundreds of these bags shoved into garbage cans all over Soldier Field as we left the game - what a waste! (We recommend you read our post about dollar store reusable bags for more on non-woven polypropylene bags.)

We actually overheard some Bears fans say, "No thanks, I'll never use it." This prompted the people giving the bags away to say, "C'mon, they're free! And it's for breast cancer awareness!" Of course we support breast cancer awareness - but how does shoving a crappy reusable bag with a pink ribbon screened on it in the hands of someone who admits they will never use it help the cause?

Here are a few other comments we overheard:

"You can have mine - I just want it to hold my stuff right now. I'm going to throw it away after the game."

 "You don't want one? They're free!!" (Guy giving them away trying to convince a women to take one after she initially refused.) 

 "I hate free junk" (That woman's reason for refusing.)

It's so absurd that even the Chicago Sun-Times weighed in on the issue.(Unfortunately this article is no longer available online.)

We posted an article exposing the hidden costs of cheap reusable bags at our site, but in a nutshell - there are a few questions you have to ask yourself whenever you're faced with free junk: Will I ever use it? Will it last? Under what working conditions are these things being made?

By avoiding cheap giveaways and focusing on high-quality reusables you're actually reducing consumption, not contributing to it.