This week we reported on the latest marketing campaign by Method, the environmentally-friendly cleaning product company. While I like Method's brand and ethos, its latest activity makes me feel slightly queasy.
It is running an initiative through schools called ‘Toxic Turn-Ins’ which involves parents and children trading in their current household cleaners for Method products.
In the story Gavin Hayes, the general secretary of think-tank Compass, calls for schools to be commercial-free zones and while I don’t wholly agree with him, in my opinion this campaign oversteps the mark.
There really is something about this activity that smacks of a sense of entitlement. Yes Method is a wonderful company and it may be driven by higher ideals but it's still just that - a company, ultimately out to flog its wares.
I wish the good folks at Method all the luck in the world in chipping away at the market share of FMCG behemoths like Unilever and Procter & Gamble but not if they pull stunts like this.
