pinkwashing

[Laurence Horn]

On Mar 22, 2012, at 4:00 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:

> And a more interesting connection:
> 
> http://goo.gl/Q1oJW
>> Consumers, beware: You may already be watching out for greenwashing
>> (unsubstantiated "green" claims) but you probably don't pay much
>> attention to pinkwashing--when companies that use chemicals known to
>> cause cancer position themselves as leaders in the fight against
>> breast cancer. It's not just hypocritical, it's dangerous.
> 
> If I dig a bit more, I'm sure I will find other instances and not just
> with colors. But what fun would that be for everyone else?
> 
>    VS-)

One relatively prevalent one seems to be "greywashing"/"graywashing", used both for the effective opposite of greenwashing (companies that seem to be less green than they really are; see http://blogs.ft.com/energy-source/2009/10/22/the-dreadful-scourge-of-greywashing/#axzz1qAD56nsV for a sardonic view) or for, well, "the act of misleading consumers regarding any purported age-associated benefits of a product or service" (http://www.icaa.cc/media/press2011/graywashing.htm).

Neither item strikes me as having the elegance of "(to be) dairy-queened".

LH

> 
> On 3/22/2012 3:36 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>> Of course, I find another important instance right after firing off a
>> somewhat emotion-based comment. This one is from Wiki and is
>> completely unrelated to the other meaning:
>> 
>>> Pinkwashing
>>> The misuse of marketing campaigns by businesses using the pink ribbon
>>> on their products have been described as pinkwashing, a portmanteau
>>> of pink ribbon and whitewash, which was coined by Breast Cancer
>>> Action. They use the term to highlight companies or products which
>>> feature a pink ribbon, without donating money to charity, or with no
>>> transparency regarding where the funds are going. It also describes
>>> the use of a pink ribbon on products with known or suspected links to
>>> cancer.
>> 
>> The entry is under "Pink Ribbon", which why only this particular
>> meaning of "pinkwashing" is mentioned. Portmanteau or not, my earlier
>> comments were meant to suggest that X-washing was a snowclonelette.
>> 
>>    VS-)
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org