In case you don't watch television, NBC Universal is observing[celebrating? promoting? exploiting?] Green Week. Oh, it's also sweeps in the television biz which is critical for setting advertising rates for the rest of the year.
The way NBC is observing it, in part, is to make sure that green messages are interspersed in all programming- news,entertainment and sports. Anyhoo, bloggers are asking if this immersion in all things green is actually the real thing or just a publicity stunt.
Joel Makower, of the Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog writes an extensive post about the activities and motivations. He does share that he is associated with the Green Order the company consulting with NBC Universal on its Eco strategy. Nevertheless he writes that Green Week at NBC is part of a larger strategy.
Will Green Week help position NBC Universal as "the" green media company, attracting new viewers and advertisers, delighting its employees, and luring the next generation of talent along the way? How will all this affect, or infect, its competitors? What will Wall Street think? The rumor mill has GE selling off its media business in order to better focus on its core industrial products. Will being seen as green enhance NBC Universal's market value? As they say on TV: Stay tuned.
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Not all fans think its a good idea. From Sam I Am who was exposed to Green Week during Sunday Football --- he's teams lost
I was pretty discouraged until I saw NBC’s green logo. They are going Green this week in all of their shows. As soon as I saw the logo my heart strangely warmed and I became an environmentalist. When I saw on Sunday Night Football that they were going to turn the lights off in the studio with Bob Costas I converted to environmental causes. Who knew? What in the crap is NBC thinking? I would love to have been in the meeting where the room said, “Yea, that’s a good idea!”
TubeTalk thinks it raises a bad precedent and could be perceived as preaching.
While I’m all for going green, I don’t like my favorite programs creating dialogue touting what essentially is a commercial message. I hate it when product placement is so obvious that it detracts from the story. (See this week’s episode of Nip/Tuck for what can only be described as a 30-second commercial for Yoplait yogurt.) I applaud NBC for using its power to get people talking about the environment, but I fear this is a dangerous precedent to set. What happens if the network decides that it must get out a message that Dell computers are superior? Will our favorite characters suddenly start declaring the excellence of Dell computers? I can just hear Scrubs’ JD to Turk, “Dude, you’re getting a Dell.” Or what happens if the social message of the week is about the atrocities in Darfur? Will we see Earl raising money for the cause and ER sending doctors?
This raises the question; If your company decided to host a green week, how would your work week change? Could your office go paperless for a day? Would you start every meeting with a Green Factoid? Would employees who walk, ride their bike or car pool get a special lunch ( candlelit of course to save energy)? Would the company hand out refillable water bottles and remove all bottled water from vending machines and lunch rooms while adding extra water coolers for instant refills? Would you spend your breaks watching NBC?