Did Big Green Lies make a Liar of Seventh Generation?

For those of you that have read the blog before you know I am a big proponent of social media and the value it can add to your business. But for every good there is an evil dark side - and right now Seventh Generation Products is dealing with the backlash of an angry e-public. The worst part, they seem to have really ticked off a huge part of their core audience - the eco-friendly, mother earth loving...mothers (including MrsBoilermaker.)

It all started with the Earth Day premier of the Fine Living Neworks "Big Green Lies." The show was created by Jeffrey Hollender, the Chief Protagonist" & CEO of Seventh Generation. On the show he implied that disposable diapers are better for the environment than cloth diapers - Seventh Generation makes an eco-friendly disposable diaper. Now it is one thing to say that Seventh Generation makes a diaper that is better for the environment than others that clog the landfills of the world, but to say they are better for the environment than cloth (no matter what your saving water reasoning may be) - well, you just might expect that you might boil the blood of a few hacky sack moms.

After the airing the hippy twitterverse was livid, including leading cloth diaper manufacturers like Bum Genius. This has lead to a day of damage control on the Seventh Generation twitter page. 

What this should serve to remind everyone who is selling anything to anyone - there are eyes and ears everywhere. Everything you say and do can impact your brand and in the new world of social media you no longer have complete control of the message. You can't always please everyone, and you shouldn't try to - but make sure to try not to do anything that can upset your core demographic - especially when they can quickly rally and gather the troops.

All I can say is good luck to you, PR staff of Seventh Generation.