DEBATE: Chocolate Money
Someone has posted an interesting topic of debate on the Friends of the Earth LIVING forum.
I wondered what the general feeling was from people regarding Cadburys becoming the new owners of the Green and Blacks range.
Will you still buy Green&Blacks chocolates or switch to other alternatives and if so what might those other alternatives be.
Do you feel companies like Cadburys should be encouraged to get into the fair trade market although having said that i think Green&Blacks only produce two fair trade chocolate bar although they have quite a large range of chocolates and so see this as something to be encouraged however one may feel about large corporations,or do you
see it as a cynical marketing ploy by them in an attempt to hitch themselves to the current consumer interest in fair trade products /produce
This is what we posted in reply...what do you think?
Tricky one this...
Do we support 'big bad evil corps' or continue to support small scale producers...?
Recently, British Gas did a deal to supply Windsave generators to customers.
Now if they are dipping their toe with alternative energy which I suspect they are then if no one buys it the media and British Gas will assume the market is not worth it. This may turn a lot of people off from even considering the alternatives...
Surely the mainstream is the place we want alternatives to be promoted...preaching to the NON-converted!
In this example though windsave benefit from every sale so perhaps its less relevant than the pure takeover of Green & Blacks but the point is well made...
Plus presumably the people behing Green & Blacks have enough money to work on other projects they may have in mind and so it continues...
The question is:
Would you prefer to live in a world where green and fair products are mass-marketed using huge corporate marketing budgets whilst they make money for 'evil corps' and their shareholders...
OR
a world in which the mainstream does not get alternatives promoted to them...
Personally...City Hippy chooses the former...we just want the world to get greener and fairer...if people make money at the same time then the net gain is in societies interest.
I have cross-posted this on our blog to try and whip up huge amounts of debate - that'll be one reply then ;)
Thoughts?
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posted by City Hippy @ 10:07 PM
6 Comments:
hi,
the world will only be a greener,fairer place when the 'evil corps' have ceased to exist!Advertising guru's have been paid'real money' to come up with ideas to jump the fair trade train!
make your own chocolate using fair trade products,I do!
namaste
I agree and also think that things are changing for the better...even in business.
Do you think that the move away from evil corps should be an 'overnight revolution' or a 'long-term evolution'?
Would love to know how to make my own chocolate, although I am fat enough he he he.
Pray tell me more?
Yeah, the former one. We'd all like to live in a greener, fairer world even if big corps get millions from it. Of course those corps could be goverment owned and then the profit ploughed back into society...oh wait it's an or question....yes, the former :)
Hi Ragnarok
those corps are in theory part gov owned...in that they pay taxes...in theory...am sure they manage to use creative accounting to get out of as much tax as poss though... ;)
Namaste
CH
If the mainstraming of ethical products means more people buy them, that's great. Fairtrade & organic farming will never change the world unless they are taken up by the masses, preferably soon!
YOU still have a choice, though. There are other companies you can buy from if you don't like mega-corps. There are always other, newer products that need the support of clued-up consumers.
Hey Beev
I agree entirely. It is all about preaching to the NON converted and getting them, regardless of politics, into a greener and fairer lifestyle. Quick!
Choice never disappears...we all love an underdog!
Namaste
CH
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