Well, at least in The British Isles it appears to. And if past trend patterns are any indication, it will probably prove itself over here as well within a year or two. They are definitely ahead of us on the green issues across the pond, so we should predict the fallout of the green advertising and marketing push of late stateside–indicating the success in opinion polls of brands like Chevy, Dow, BP, GE, Wal-Mart–to show up in polls here soon enough indicating people’s perception that the greenest brands are those that advertise it the most. (Was that really a surprise to anyone?)

The sad truth is that lowest common denominators factor in when taking the broad pulse of the green movement and that in the end, whoever shouts the loudest, gets the prize. In spite of the fact that none of these companies above are doing as much as it seems like they are from their ad campaigns, the public will end up with a positive opinion of them. If I recall correctly, BP and Wal-Mart both have looked pretty good in recent surveys. And only if you make egregious mistakes will you come out harmed from this practice.

It all begs the question a bit of what exactly is greenwashing, and how does one identify it? But then, does it even really matter? We talk a lot about the need for transparency because we believe that the consumer now has a wealth of information at their fingertips to unravel the true corporate stories through the web, but is the diligence really there? One recent report indicates that companies just need to have a few things in place for consumers to give them the social or environmental thumbs up. (Anyone for a quick carbon offset bump?)

Let the green guns blaze, and caveat emptor.