Ogilvy Earth: Green Branding or Green Washing? PT.3

My conclusion about Ogilvy Earth: Are they a true, transperant, thoughtleading green brand agency or run-of-the-mill-being-green-for-better-PR green washing extroidinars? Well neither and a little of both at the same time. While I would never call Ogilvy Earth "sustainable thought leaders" I do think that they are on their way to becoming a decent green branding agency.

They need to pick up some tougher clients, ones that would surprise me with a reinvented sustainable ground work. They should tackle someone tougher, how about Kraft,  Frito-Lay, Johnson and Johnson or Crest? Ogilvy Earth is in a position to take on big non-green clients that small agencies would never be able to touch. They need to work on not just making brands look "more sustainable" but changing the way brands do business to make their practices sustainable.    

Ogilvy Earth also needs to work on becoming more transparent and relevant to the audience that will be the most critical of its green agency claims, gen-y college students and young professionals. They need to steer away from the business jargon and explain, in layman's terms, the tactics they are using  and how they are effective. I know when I see a buzz-word packed proclamation about how great their "Eco Audits" are, I immediately tune out and suspect them for trying to hide behind their sweet-sounding but little meaning words.

But they are doing some good things, and with the power (and $$$) that Ogilvy has, they are in a position to pave the way for other monolith agencies. So here's to you Ogilvy Earth for trying. I am sure to clients trying to "go green" you seem like a good choice but if you want to be believable to us, your audience, you need to take it to the next level.