Jeffrey Hollender on BP’s False Advertising

Jeffrey Hollender, co-founder and CEO of Seventh Generation—the eco-friendly manufacturer of cleaning, paper, and personal care products—stopped by the Big Think offices today to talk about about his thoughts on leadership, the importance of creating a company culture, and the danger of duality in business. Hollender believes too many companies today are harming the environment in a variety of ways while publicizing the few positive steps they’re taking in the opposite direction. Take, for example, British Petroleum. The company spent decades building up their brand around the phrase, “Beyond Petroleum,” when 99.9 percent of their business was still in oil and gas. Talk about false advertising.

In truth, the disaster BP created for itself doesn’t differ much from what other companies are doing behind the curtain, says Hollender. Plenty of other companies are polluting the oceans with chemicals every day—it just so happens that the current oil spill disaster is plainly visible. For instance, while Toyota was promoting its hybrid Prius, the company was also lobbying against tougher gas mileage standards.

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