What Has Earth Day Become?

Most of our holidays in the United States have become way too commercialized. I would like to know how much revenue is created by Hallmark alone on such holidays as Mother’s Day and Easter. Now Earth Day has also become one of those holidays. Everyone in the marketing business is selling Earth Day for more profit on their end.

According to Leslie Kaufman, author at New York Times, “forty years later, the day has turned into a premier marketing platform for selling a variety of goods and services, like office products, Greek yogurt, and eco-dentistry” (Kaufman para 2). I didn’t even know that Earth Day existed until a few years back when someone asked me if I wanted to buy a t-shirt supporting Earth Day. Now it’s just not the t-shirts they’re trying to sell, they’ve moved on to bigger and better things.

Don’t get me wrong, I fully support Earth Day. What I don’t believe in is all the marketing schemes out there. The true meaning behind Earth Day has been lost in the last 40 years. Kaufman adds “To many pioneers of the environmental movement, eco-consumerism, creeping for decades, is intensely frustrating and detracts from Earth Day’s original purpose”(Kaufman para 5). Earth Day started out as a way to impact the world environmentally, such as keeping the air and water clean. Today I think it is much more of a marketing tactic than an earth saving movement.

Kaufman, Leslie. New York Times: At 40,Earth Day Is Now Big Business(WEB)