Filed under: Green, Marketing/Advertising, Lifestyle
"Blue" the new "Green" in automotive environmentalism
by Jonathon Ramsey on Jan 1st 2008 at 8:03AM 
Blue is, among other things, the color of the doldrums (the blues), the unknown (out of the blue), the cold or airless (turning blue), the ocean (the big blue), Democrats (blue states), and racy films (blue movies). According to ad agency JWT, 2008 could see blue take on more meaning: becoming the "color of environmentalism, social conscience, and all-round niceness. JWT notes that blue is the color of the sea and the sky, making it easier for people to identify it with the current hot-button issue of climate change."It's interesting that JWT thinks blue sea and skies make it "easier for people to identify" with environmental concerns. Like green trees and the green, green grass of home are just to damned abstract to really understand what this whole saving-the-Earth thing is all about. It's not like we need anything else clouding the environmental debate -- like Bluetec and Bluemotion, which both utilize green diesel technology. So instead of trying to figure out if you're a blue-greenie or a green-greenie, why don't we just call it teal and get on with being good to the Earth?
[Source: AutoblogGreen]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Andrew 8:31AM (1/01/2008)
I guess they figure many people associate green with Al Gore, smelly hippies, and in-your-face hybrids like the Prius. Decent car, but too much of a statement. Perhaps some people just want to get great mileage and save money without being pegged as an enviromentalist nut.
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Jim 2:49PM (1/01/2008)
"color of environmentalism, social conscience, and all-round niceness"
Gee, I never knew that being nice and being environmental went together.
What total crap. I know lots of "geen" (blue?) people you wouldn't want to be friends with, and lots of very nice people who don't care about "the planet" as much as they do the inhabitants.
Lee 8:39AM (1/01/2008)
...Well, this is *The Blue Planet*
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VP 9:19AM (1/01/2008)
So when is Autoblogblue being launched? Any fixed dates?
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Andy 9:22AM (1/01/2008)
Wouldn't that be AutoblogTeal?
AndyMF 9:35AM (1/01/2008)
why not AutoblogRainbow to cover all bases?
iSpec 9:54AM (1/01/2008)
.....'Green' because of the all the bucks environmentalists are swindling in the name of envionmentalism.
.....'Blue' because of how sad people are going to feel when they realize they've been duped.
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L3 10:03AM (1/01/2008)
Everyone knows that 'Blue' is the new 'Green.' 'Green' is so 2007.
I am green with envy, blue with sadness, and periwinkle for a Good Times burger.
When does the 'White Sale' start?
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L3 10:10AM (1/01/2008)
Well, FINALLY, a big break for FoMoCo, also known as BIG BLUE. Hooray for the Blue Oval!
Where's my Navigator Hybrid? Bring the F-150 Turbo Diesel! Super Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel equals clean economy that should be in my next Fiesta, Focus, and Fusion.
This is our year!
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j_diesel 2:10AM (1/02/2008)
don't forget M-B with bluetec that requires AdBlue fluid. i can't wait for all those powerful turbodiesels.
B 10:30AM (1/01/2008)
No offense to autoblog, but the people who sit around and think about how Blue is going to be the new green, and green is out, are a bunch of crack pots.
Seriously...who cares. Its just a color denoting earth friendliness.
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Edsel 11:13AM (1/01/2008)
Come'on! Green is great. Green is life. Green are trees, plants, cucumbers and my swimming pool. The last time I saw blue foliage was in the 1960's, I'm too old to do Blue again.
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Speddy 11:56AM (1/01/2008)
Blue Balls?
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Slashy The Clown 1:21PM (1/01/2008)
Blue? No way, the new green is BROWN. It's the colour of earth! And you can't get more natural than earth, can you? Think about it...
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RicardoHead 1:21PM (1/01/2008)
I wanna form my own Green party: the Soylent Green Party.
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dan 2:08PM (1/01/2008)
So in other words, obnoxious green activists have started to leave a bad taste in everybody else's mouths and it's time for them to ruin a new word.
Kind of how liberals and socialists call themselves progressives now.
Same sh-t different sticker.
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Polly Prissy Pants 10:13AM (1/02/2008)
RE: "Kind of how liberals and socialists call themselves progressives now."
Progressivism has been around for over 100 years and was always more associated with the ideas of the Left (not that they're the same) so I'm not sure what you mean. Maybe your definition of 'progressive' differs from everyone elses but that was such an odd statement I couldn't help commenting.
A better analogy might be some of the terms for various racial groups that were perfectly acceptable at some point in the past but are now considered insensitive. Or maybe some of the historic terms for people with learning disabilities or psychological disorders that were clininal terms in the past but are now considered offensive.
Dustin 3:31PM (1/01/2008)
Naturally the Civic Hybrid emblem is blue.
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Mallory 9:58AM (1/02/2008)
Not sure why they think blue will replace green, but then they're an ad agency so they're probably just pulling stuff out of their shorts to get some pub. Everybody already knows what 'being green' is and if you're blue then you're sad. Doesn't sound like a very good marketing plan to me.
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bill 10:36AM (1/02/2008)
We need to come up with a color that signifies stupid. It could be a rainbow combination since stupid comes in so many hues. People can wear wristbands so others can best determine just how stupid they are and what it is the people are stupid about. Politicians will have to wear jumpsuits that identify their areas of stupid expertise.
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