STATEMENT
Our group’s exploration of the areas of information gaps or ‘leakages’ in greenwashing in the Lacoste campaign was a sobering one. It was very apparent that graphic communication design decisions underpin a large extent of what is conveyed and what is not. This was helpful in terms of self-reflection about one’s own position as a curator of visual information and knowledge and the ethical responsibility that entails. It also served as a reminder of the complexity of issues regarding sustainability. This investigation led not only to critical thinking about how graphic communication design might be leveraged with respect to climate issues, but also the economic environment in which we practise. There is a seemingly inextricable tangling of commercial design and capitalism, and there is tension in whether ‘good’ design is that which is created ‘for love or money’ when it comes to advertising. We considered what a ‘successful’ green advertising campaign might look like, but all advertising has some motive “to seduce, to exhort, to sell, to educate, to convince, to appeal” (Weinmayr, 2020). There is potential for all graphic design content we produce to influence someone, on how they think, feel, and even spend their money.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Abdulla, D. (2022), On the Contradictions of Sustainability, Futuress.org, lecture via Futuress
This lecture sculpted and refined our understanding of what greenwashing is. As we watched it in the early stages of our research, whilst deciding which campaign to focus upon, its illumination of the contradictions within sustainability marketing guided our approach. The disparity between the ‘green’ image companies and corporations portray and the messiness and complexity which actually undergirds their operations is something we explored as we investigated the Lacoste ‘Save the Species’ campaign. In the eyes of the consumer, Lacoste might be seen positively in their choice of campaign to ‘help save’ endangered species. But the same year the campaign first launched, the Worker Rights Consortium determined that Lacoste’s supply chain included a factory in China which relied on forced labour. This seems to be a perfect example of the issue Abdulla is concerned about in terms of contradiction: Lacoste is suggesting to the consumer that they care about endangered animals, whilst exploiting this emotional connectivity to make a sale, but at the same time human rights are being violated as part of their supply chain.
- Auerbach, T (2020-2021) Various works: Panthalassa, Sinusoidal, Stereographic
Auerbach’s artistic focus on perspectives is interesting with respect to our project. There are multiple ways in which this idea of different mapped perspectives is paralleled in our work. I created comparative maps of the ways Lacoste interacts with different geographies: where their shops are, where their factories are, and where the endangered species are (for which the campaign raised money/awareness), with France in the centre (as the birthplace of Lacoste). But we also played with changing the shape of a map, delimiting it within a Lacoste logo-shaped crocodile, hinting at how the consumer’s view and understanding is limited by what the brand chooses to share. More abstractly, we explored and examined different perspectives of thought. Similar to how Auerbach draws attention to different ways of viewing the spatial dimensions of a global map such as showing the world’s oceans as one body, we drew attention to ways of looking at different dimensions of Lacoste’s supply chain.
- Baudrillard, J. (1970) The Consumer Society: Myths & Structures
Graphic communication designers make choices all the time, which in a commercial context, are usually to align with business goals. “[K]nowing how to sell… a product” like polo shirts requires an understanding of the people one is selling to. Designers can “communicate” in the commercial realm by applying their empathy, understanding, and aesthetic sensibilities to manipulate consumers’ decisions. All marketing outputs are vying for consumers’ attention and action. Thinking about this with respect to ‘leakage’ raises ethical questions: is it acceptable to be leaving uncomfortable truths out of sight (and out of mind) regarding who is making garments, whether a campaign makes any difference, and what pollution and overproduction might be going on? Consumers are being targeted with superficial objectives related to ‘saving the planet’ when the real primary objective is that of increasing consumerism and driving brand loyalty. The ‘connection’ one may feel towards a brand might therefore be an emotional association with perceived brand values, rather than their actual intention: profit.
- Brand, S. (1968-1971) Whole Earth Catalog, United States: Stewart Brand
When considering how to visually communicate our individual and collective connection with and responsibility for the planet with respect to greenwashing, the Whole Earth Catalog was a source of inspiration in its holistic, DIY approach. The same way we as graphic communication designers sought to forensically examine and visually convey the areas of ‘leakage’ in the Lacoste campaign, in its time, the Whole Earth Catalog made information accessible for its readers, both product information and also sustainable lifestyle recommendations. We drew inspiration from its simple diagrammatic spreads in some of the visuals we produced, as well as the concept of making ecological knowledge easily available to the public. The Catalog’s ethos of down-to-earth transparency matched our own rising conviction that what was missing from the Lacoste campaign’s narrative was transparency. We pushed this idea of transparency as we explored areas of ‘leakage’ in digital, hand drawn, and embroidered graphics. A potential idea for Lacoste, but also the fashion industry at large, would be to provide comparative visual and textual information on all its factories, like a spread of the Whole Earth Catalog, instead of curating just 1 out of 886 for show on its website.
- Weinmayr, E. (2020) ‘One Publishes to Find Comrades’
There is a parallel between the way poster slogans “do not give away full information… their sole purpose is to get you buying” and the way luxury fashion retail marketing operates in their sustainability ‘efforts’. As in the case of the Lacoste campaign our group investigated, there is much complexity to sustainability and what it means to be ‘green’ in fashion. By “shrink[ing] complex realities” in portraying a front of caring for cute endangered species, the campaign is “loaded with emotion” as a way of driving sales, whilst the ethical complexities behind the production process are conveniently not on show. The same way the Evening Standard headlines raise “interest, curiosity, and adrenaline and eventually generat[e] a return”, a limited edition run of polo shirts bearing Lacoste-green endangered animals piques desire and adrenaline and frenzy among consumers, who must compete like crocodiles to make their purchase before there are no shirts left.
- Westcott, C. (2021) In CAPS LOCK, Ruben Pater Untangles the Relationship Between Graphic Design and Capitalism
In consideration of the role design plays in shaping society, Westcott illumines Pater’s position in respect to graphic design and capitalism: that they are related and interwoven, and this is not necessarily a good thing. When business growth and maximal profits are the highest goal, external pressures like ‘doing your bit’ for the environment become something companies like Lacoste can use as a means of virtue signalling and raising the value of the intangible asset, goodwill, on their balance sheet. Their effective use of sustainability-related graphic communication design to improve profit margins whilst overlooking the marginalised is an example of one of the problems Pater warns about: exploitation. This idea fed into our practice as we considered the implications for graphic communication designers: perhaps their role could be more than protection of the private property of individuals and corporations, but the shaping of sustainable consumption by conveying information which is not readily available to the consumer.