7gen Bloc

The Clorox Company recently took out a full-page ad in People magazine to promote its amped-to-the-max cleaner, Formula 409. In the ad, Clorox boasted that it has the desire and the capacity to develop an even brawnier product, "…Formula 410, but it would be illegal in 12 states." In other words, according to Clorox, Formula 409 tests the very limits of environmental laws. The ad implies that if Clorox could re-formulate 409 just one more time, the resulting product would be outlawed.

So there you have it. Clorox has shown its true color, and it certainly isn't green. The company that built its brand on chemical bleach -- and then sought to green its image by nabbing natural-based Burt's Bees and launching GreenWorks -- also wants to launch a cleaner on steroids, if only those tree-hugging environmental regulators would let it. It's now clear that for Clorox, Burt's is simply a fig leaf -- it's using the ethical Burt's to conceal the fact that at its core, Clorox is still a big-time bleach company.

Greenwashing scouts speak of a "hidden tradeoff," where polluting companies use the badge of a narrow cluster of environmental initiatives to give their brands a green luster that they don't deserve. So it goes with Clorox, which brags about helping people lead "healthier lives," even as it deploys its scientists and marketing mavens to develop a chemical-laden product that is just this side of legal.

Clorox can still claim that it's a responsible company, if you define "responsible" as reluctantly complying with the letter of the law. But an authentically good company is one where all of its works live up to its (good) words. Selling natural-based products with the one hand while contributing to indoor-air pollution with the other shows that Clorox is neither completely good nor completely bad. It's just a poseur.