Going Green

In the past few years being "green" and buying sustainable products has become all the rage. I attended two programs last year that focused on sustainability and living green and since returning to "civilization," I've noticed and scrutinized all the green advertisements and the way previously dorky or lame companies (to teenagers), such as LL Bean are now considered cool and hip. Whenever my mom would buy me LL Bean outfits in middle school I'd promptly bury them at the back of my closet, and now I find myself enjoying time spent in LL Bean and wearing LL Bean apparel with pride, knowing its often made with the environment in mind. Some of it has to do with my abandonment of the quest to be fashionable. Comfort and warmth now occupy the part of my mind that picks out clothes. Anyways, magazines such as Vogue now sport spreads of green gifts around the holidays and green replacements for other things, such as organic soaps and lotions. Often, green products

are advertised with all the flash and thrills, and are typically sold for more money. The shirt on top is a teal American apparel T that retails for $17. The one on the bottom is an organic American Apparel T that retails for $18. While this margin is small, if someone chooses to buy ten t-shirts, say for making jerseys for a sports team, the company has already made ten more dollars. While organic cotton is often times softer and more sumptuous, high-end stores such as American Apparel tend to use nice cotton for their regular t-shirts, decreasing the softness margin between the two shirts significantly. They do however have an all organics section on their website where people might look and buy from, without knowing that the organic shirts probably aren't that different physically than the other shirts. Their production is definitely different, but often times teenagers shopping at American Apparel care less about where the product comes from and its production's affect on the environment and more about its price, look, and feel. Organic beauty product ads can also be found in magazines typically considered classy and up to date, such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Instyle.

Above is a magazine spread displaying green bags, made with organic or recycled materials. The article, found at http://www.vogue.com/voguedaily/2009/06/eco-centric-green-totes-at-the-green-market/, epitomizes the mix of fashion lingo with green lingo found in articles about green products. The article also discusses the work of green fashion designers. Even if every fashionista in the U.S.A. bought organic or recycled purses, our country would still be in an environmental crisis. However, the little things everyone does matter. Some of us try to do more things, such as Andover's entrance into the Green Cup Challenge, but if people normally uninterested in the environment find a flashy ad for natural beauty products that won't pollute the earth, then that's great. Often times natural beauty products are advertised as being better for the skin and less toxic on the body.

Nowadays, magazines and websites focusing on the environment itself are becoming more and more popular. The series Planet Earth has become a sensation in the U.S.A. Planet Earch addresses the problems plaguing the earth while delivering stunning footage of the environment and images of cute animals to its audience. Some of my friends who never before cared about the environment, vowed to take shorter showers and start taking the train into boston rather than driving, after I showed them Planet Earth. The Discovery Channel, run by the BBC, has succeeded in attracting a large population of teenagers of all backgrounds (jocks, girly girls, etc.), and have used this to the environment's advantage. The annual Shark Week on the Discovery Channel is something that we teenagers look forward to, and the Discovery Channel reminds viewers that many species of sharks are endangered while showing them clips of the coolest animals alive. In general, I've found that advertising for programs based on the environment as well as products that are eco-friendly are doing well and attracting people of different interests and demographics to the environmental cause.