Friday, October 3, 2008

Certifiable Organic Bananas???




You would think that a pre-Halloween post about organic bananas would have something to do with Treats but this one is definitely about the Tricks.

I was killing some time walking around the mall before a meeting yesterday afternoon. I don't mall shop much at all, not my thing, but I do like to window shop now and again. I went into Pottery Barn Kids, drawn in by the Halloween window display. They had a selection of costumes for kids of course and they had this one, the Certified Organic Banana. Cute? Maybe a bit odd? For sure, especially with the pealed banana bag but one I got within a foot of the thing I noticed 2 things....

First, unsurprisingly, for Pottery Barn Kids, the costume sans bag was $90 Canadian.
side note - retails for $65 U.S. in the catalog, what do they think Canadians are, total suckers? F.Y.I. Pottery Barn, I can do math on currency conversions and don't tell me the shipping costs at almost 30%

Second, and filed under the 'duhh, should have guessed category', was that the 'Certified Organic Banana' costume was made out of 100% polyester. Nothin' organic here but maybe the kid wearing it.

I'm always happy to see planet friendly ideas go mainstream. I even believe we can balance our desires for commercial materialism with our eco-friendliness but it doesn't start with polyester organic bananas. If the costume had been made with cotton and linen, organic or not, like their Pirate costume, I would have appreciated the concept of an organic fruity costume for what is was (even though I don't know a single kid who would want to be a fruit of any kind for Halloween) and because it puts the concept of living naturally out there even if you didn't make your kids costume yourself. We don't all have the time or the inclination to make our own costumes. I have been buying previously loved costumes for my kids myself. That way my daughter has been able to pick her costume, which is important to her it seems.

But the PB costume is a fake, a trick, and an example of the worst kind of greenwashing - promoting eco-awarness without a stitch of eco-sensitivity.

Shame on you Pottery Barn Kids, you gave yourself a chance to do something right and you went all wrong instead. No Treat for you.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so impressed - read every word & will visit regularly!

Amanda Pedro said...

you go girl!
oh, are you dreaming in green yet? lol