Branding Environmentalism for TV: the Rise and Fall of Planet Green
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Branding Environmentalism for TV: The Rise and Fall of Planet Green A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Heidi Margaret Zimmerman IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Dr. Laurie Ouellette August 2015 © Heidi Margaret Zimmerman 2015 Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the encouragement and support of a great many people. I'd like to thank my advisor Laurie Ouellette, for supporting my intellectual growth not only through the dissertation process, but since I arrived as a master’s student. Her courses pushed my scholarship in new and exciting directions that shaped this project and will surely shape my work for years to come. She was patient with my writing process—reading many drafts that were often quite long- winded—and guided me to think in more sophisticated ways. I can’t imagine a better advisor. Tracey Deutsch has also been a great support and consistently generous about reading my work. Mary Vavrus has been encouraging throughout my graduate career; her enthusiasm has more than once buoyed my confidence during the long and sometimes frustrating dissertation process. And thanks to Ron Greene, who made it possible for me to stay on in the program for a fifth year, which allowed me to write a much better dissertation. I would also like to thank my colleagues in and outside of the department: my writing group, Liora Elias, Rebecca Jurisz and Jacqueline Arcy, for their feedback on early drafts on this project and for their friendship and support. Aaron Eddens, for his comments on more recent parts of this project, and for listening so carefully and thoughtfully as I talked through writing challenges. Thanks to the members of the Agrifood reading group, and those whose conversation—both in coursework and beyond—has challenged and informed my thinking: Diane Cormany, Kate Ranachan, Allyson Shaffer, Helen Morgan-Parmet, Erin Cole, and Elizabeth Ault. Thanks to my non-school friends for keeping me sane: Peter Crandall, Erin Rupp, Janelle Bane, Laura Cesafsky, and Chad Kampe. I thank my partner Tom for supporting me when the writing process got me down and for celebrating with me when I got things finished. Thanks to my family: Mom, for supporting me through the ups and downs of writing this dissertation, not to mention the best line editing I could ask for (thank you!); Dad and Cathy, for helping me through; and thanks to my brother, Rob, for always being interested in this project and taking the train all the way from Massachusetts to hear me talk about it. i Dedication For my family. ii Abstract This dissertation analyzes the rise and fall of Planet Green, Discovery Communications Inc.’s short-lived multiplatform, environmentalism-themed media brand. Launched in 2008, Planet Green billed itself as “the first 24-hour network devoted to the green lifestyle.” It promised to “bring green to the mainstream” with a full lineup of environmentalist lifestyle and reality television, environmental news and documentaries, and two websites with a wide array of eco-games and quizzes, consumer advice, DIY projects, an open-ended discussion forum, and short-form videos. But despite a huge and successful launch and a significant programming budget, by 2012, Discovery announced that Planet Green would be cancelled and replaced with Destination America, a male- targeted lifestyle network aimed at a “between the coasts crown,” said Discovery spokespeople. With shows like BBQ Pitmasters, United States of Food, Fast Food Mania, and Epic RV’s, the new channel offered a kind of macho celebration of patriotism and consumerist excess that seemed to applaud the very things that Planet Green cautioned viewers against. My dissertation argues that Planet Green’s rise and fall must be understood at the place where contemporary branding meets neoliberal governmentality. It was structured by the simultaneous industrial impulses to “govern through television” on the one hand, and to maximize profits in an increasingly competitive cable TV market on the other. When it came to branding environmentalism in particular, these simultaneous impulses were in deep conflict and generated a great deal of anxiety among industry insiders. I show that Planet Green took shape in a manner designed to ease these anxieties through branding. In the end, however, even with Discovery’s extensive resources and professed commitment to the environment, Planet Green was unable to overcome the tensions between profits and planet saving. iii Table of Contents Introduction: Branding environmentalism for television………………………………….1 Chapter 1: Green governmentalizing dreams……………………………………………31 Chapter 2: Branding, governmentality, and the new environmentalism….……………..87 Chapter 3: Anxieties, ambivalence and “posting” environmentalism………………….165 Chapter 4: Planet Green’s demise……………………………………………………....223 Conclusion: What can we learn from Planet Green?…………………………………...286 References………………………………………………………………………………295 iv Introduction: Branding environmentalism for television Introduction The first decade of the twenty-first century witnessed a proliferation of brands that positioned themselves as socially and environmentally responsible. Many companies launched “green” lines of products (Clorox’s Green Works, and SCJohnson’s Nature’s Source, for example) in addition to their traditional, non-environmentally friendly ones. Other companies that trade solely on “green” credentials, such as Seventh Generation and Burt’s Bees, became what Advertising Age’s Jack Neff terms “megabrands” (Neff 2010a). Wal-Mart began publicizing “zero waste” goals and carrying organic foods. And magazines like Vanity Fair and Elle published “green” issues. We saw the establishment of the Green Effie advertising “effectiveness” awards (Effies Go Green 2007), the “first annual” of a number of green marketing conferences (Neorr 2007), and marketers began to have designated “green budgets” (Sustainable Life Media Editor 2008). Advertisers became interested in consumers in the relatively affluent LOHAS lifestyle cluster (“lifestyle of health and sustainability”), willing to pay extra for environmentally friendly goods and services. Special consumers dubbed “greenfluencers” became a desirable target group, valued for being chatty, networked, and willing to plug green brands and products for free in their everyday lives (Zerillo 2008) and green marketing guides waxed enthusiastic about the complementarity of environmentalism and good business. Simultaneous with this enthusiasm, however, a struggle raged over the meaning and practice of green itself. Consumers and environmentalists raised concerns over corporate 1 greenwashing. Marketers worried that consumers would develop “green fatigue” ” (Neff 2010b) or that anti-greenwashing activism would cause irreparable damage to their brands. Other industry insiders complained that consumers, failing to “live green” themselves, were holding corporations to unfair standards, as one AdWeek reporter put it “a case of individuals outsourcing environmental responsibility to big business” (Dolliver 2008). Since Obama entered the White House, the Federal Trade Commission had begun taking enforcement action against advertisers who made false or misleading environmental claims (Neff 2010c), while industry shot back that voluntary, corporate self-regulation was superior to “unfair” government oversight (Peeler 2008). All the while, global warming, species extinction, ocean acidification and other forms of environmental degradation—and the human activities that produce them—show few signs of abating. It was in this milieu that Discovery Communications Inc. launched Planet Green, its environmentalist US cable network and multiplatform media brand. Announced in 2007 and going live in 2008, Planet Green debuted with a full lineup of eco-TV shows to be aired 24 hours a day 7 days a week on the channel that, until this point, had been Discovery Home. (Discovery also launched Planet Green programming blocks in its Latin American, China, Asia, and UK markets (Discovery Globe 2008).) Discovery commissioned all-original programming for the new channel, which ranged from environmental news (Focus Earth 7/12/08-1/3/10) to lifestyle and consumer advice (G Word 6/4/08-12/15/08) to celebrity-studded competition reality shows (Battleground Earth 8/3/08-10/12/08). A docu-series chronicled the green rebuilding of the tornado- 2 devastated Greensburg, Kansas (Greensburg 6/15/08-5/3/10) and comedian Tom Green hosted a game show (Go for the Green 11/8/08-2/21/09). There were cooking shows that instructed viewers in the preparation of organic and local dishes (Emeril Green 7/14/08- 6/21/10, Supper Club with Tom Bergeron 6/4/08-10/23/08) and home design and renovation programs covering topics like energy efficiency, green building products and techniques, salvaging materials, and eco-design (Total Wrecklamation 9/30/08-4/21/09, Renovation Nation 6/4/08-2/18/10, Greenovate 6/6/08-10/3/08, and World’s Greenest Homes 6/6/08-2/20/10). There was a green Hollywood gossip and fashion show (Hollywood Green with Maria Menounos 6/4/08-9/25/08) and a “high stakes” drag racing program that pitted green vehicles against their eco-unfriendly counterparts (Mean Green Machines 6/4/08-7/15/08). The Planet Green brand extended beyond the TV network to include partnerships with environmental nonprofits, scientific explorations, standards-based K-12 educational resources for schools, and two expansive websites, PlanetGreen.com