Should Procter & Gamble Be In Charge of The Environment?

Whether or not you agree we need to do something about the environment, I think it is a great example of how dumb and egotistical, really smart people can be.

Lets assume global warming is an issue.

The proponents of global warming have really screwed it up. They have turned it into a right vs wrong, good vs evil, left vs right battle. The results are that they will waste a lot of valuable time arguing when they could be actually changing the world.

It’s like two egotistical college professors arguing about who is right. Their main objective is to prove that the other professor is wrong and disgrace them as a way of elevating their own status. They don’t seem to care if anything really changes.

Global warming needs a marketing campaign.

The proponents of global warming need to sell it. Calling people stupid only causes the other side to dig their heels in and resist even more.

Imagine if Procter & Gamble had a new product that they had carefully researched. A product that their best scientists had vetted. They knew that this product would be a success, if they could only show the public the benefits.

They decided to name this new product, Global Warming.

They introduced it with great fanfare. Almost everyone had heard of their new product, Global Warming. Some people really liked and some people didn’t see why they needed it.

In order for their Global Warming product to be a success they needed to get more people to like it. They stepped back and analyzed the situation.

They needed a new name.

The first problem they identified was that they needed to rename the product. The people who didn’t see the value in the product had now closed their minds and some even got angry when they heard the name, Global Warming.

They needed a better ad campaign.

The second problem they realized was that their ad or communications campaign was too controversial. While it really appealed to some people, it really turned off others. Their campaign also made it too easy for the competition to create doubt in the minds of many people.

The campaign also took a doomsday approach yet the average person saw the sun continue to rise everyday. They also tried to make every hot day, storm or dry spell a bigger problem than most people saw. The people who didn’t buy the product just racked all this up to “Shit Happens.”

They needed to control the message.

They discovered that some of their supporters were too zealous with the claims they made about the Global Warming product. They made some claims that were proven to be untrue. This created doubt and a lack of trust in the new product and the science behind it.

They needed a step by step approach.

They realized that they were trying to sell an “all or nothing” product. People weren’t ready for that. They also didn’t really have a clear plan of what “all or nothing” really meant.

They needed to build a plan that started with small steps most people would agree with. These steps needed to be about their everyday lives in the present and not something happening far away or ten years in the future.

These small steps could then build momentum and, in the end, create a successful product.

Would Procter & Gamble let their scientists market a product?

That’s exactly what the Global Warming proponents are doing. If they were as smart as they think they are and really cared about the environment, they would get out of the way and continue to be brilliant scientists instead of poor marketers.