Lockheed Martin’s green advertising

2009-03-12

in Bombs and rockets, Rants, The environment

One page 51 of the March 7th issue of The Economist, I noticed an unusual advertisement for Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defence contractor by revenue:

Lockheed Martin green advertising

When you read the text at the bottom, the error in the ad is obvious. Somehow, the advertising firm they hired failed to include any actual Lockheed Martin products. It is all well and good to express your firm’s sincere support for reduced consumption and increased conservation, but it seems important to include some evidence of the concrete actions your firm takes.

With that in mind, I took it upon myself to add one of their quality products, the Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missile:

Lockheed Martin green advertising

These are the missiles that make up the deterrent force of the United Kingdom, another entity sincerely committed to environmental protection. Lockheed also manufactures fighter jets, munitions, missile defence systems, and satellite-launching rockets.

I encourage others with a bit of Photoshop skill to add other Lockheed products to the ad. Here is my original photo. If someone could produce a higher-quality scan, that would be excellent.

{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }

ann March 12, 2009 at 9:31 pm

Brilliant!
This is a good candidate for EcoBunk 2009:

http://www.torontoenvironment.org/ecobunk2008

Kerrie March 13, 2009 at 12:19 am

Ten points, Milan.

R.K. March 13, 2009 at 9:30 am

That’s a confirmed kill.

R.K. March 13, 2009 at 9:30 am

Seriously, though. If we were to make a list of all the things society should cut back on for the sake of the environment, everything Lockheed manufactures would be on it.

Emily March 13, 2009 at 10:53 am

Lockheed Martin’s slogan is ‘We never forget who we’re working for.’

… Death?

What a strange tag.

Milan March 13, 2009 at 11:00 am

Their ‘how’ campaign has a flash-based website. They claim that they are “working toward eliminating the impact of [their] operations on the environment.”

Here is the campaign’s environment page.

R.K. March 13, 2009 at 11:20 am

In an indirect way, this ad could be good news.

The fact that even Lockheed Martin feels the need to pretend to be green is arguably evidence of the increased importance of environmental issues in the public sphere.

Emily March 13, 2009 at 2:27 pm

They have excellent PR skills, judging by this video. Too bad that the 40 million dollars they invested in ‘greening’ is siphoned from the growing monetary translation of the destruction of human life.

But, they aren’t working for *those* people.

Emily March 13, 2009 at 2:29 pm

(the environment page video that Milan linked to)

Milan March 13, 2009 at 2:32 pm

The fact that even Lockheed Martin feels the need to pretend to be green is arguably evidence of the increased importance of environmental issues in the public sphere.

Perhaps, though it also demonstrates that people are easy to fool. As long as it remains cheaper to trick people about your environmental record than to genuinely clean things up, the deceptive approach will be appealing to firms.

People working for companies like Lockheed must have long-standing mental justifications for what they do, probably based around some notion of ‘protecting the country’ by assembling delivery systems for nuclear weapons.

mek March 13, 2009 at 8:33 pm

If you ever watch American cable news (CNN/MSNBC in particular) nonsensical “green” ads like this for industrial/gas titans, combined with ads for pharmaceuticals, make up 90% of every commercial break.

Milan March 13, 2009 at 10:17 pm

When I showed the Lockheed ad to some co-workers with the corporate logo covered, they all thought it was for an oil company.

Milan March 15, 2009 at 1:09 am

Even stranger advertising from an arms company, this time Rafael Advanced Defense Systems:

Israeli Rafael’s Indian promo

The Bollywood style is odd, though the video does at least include a mock-up of a Rafael missile.

As an aside, Rafael and Lockheed are partners on the Protector unmanned surface vehicle (USV).

Milan March 15, 2009 at 1:11 am

The mock-up seems to be of a ‘Spike’ anti-tank guided missile.

ironboltbruce January 15, 2011 at 9:33 pm

At Lockheed Martin, we contract with people for profit:

http://bit.ly/cHbmqV

At Lockheed Martin, we count people for profit:

http://bit.ly/feUPNE

At Lockheed Martin, we coerce people for profit:

http://bit.ly/gk1fUE

At Lockheed Martin, we control people for profit:

http://bit.ly/dQVdT9

At Lockheed Martin, we kill people for profit:

http://bit.ly/eABhOY

At Lockheed Martin, we never forget what we’re working for…

http://wp.me/p19dS3-5d

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