Does Apple have the greenest notebooks?
Through the little used channel of the Better Business Bureau’s National Advertising Division, Dell has gotten Apple to amend its “green notebooks†claim, but not by much.
Dell complained via the BBB division that Apple was not alone in its ability to claim that its notebooks were environmentally friendly due to their energy usage, packaging and recyclable components. Dell said that their notebooks, as well as those of other companies, could make the same claims about some of their computers, according to a Wall Street Journal story. So Apple has changed their claim to read “the world’s greenest lineup of notebooks†instead of “the world’s greenest family of notebooks.â€
Specifically, Dell says that it and other manufacturers have equaled Apple’s gold ratings by the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool, or EPEAT. Dell also said that the four green claim areas used in Apple’s MacBook ads (recyclability, reduced packaging, less toxic materials and increased energy efficiency) have not been proven in fact, saying “Apple must, but does not, establish superiority over all of its competitors in all four pillars to support its broad superiority claim…many competing laptops offer the same characteristics it cites as the basis of superiority (e.g., recyclability).â€
The BBB advertising division thought about Dell’s comment and decided that Apple “has specifically undertaken to design all of its MacBooks to reduce their negative environmental impact, as reflected in EPEAT ratings, and that it should be free to communicate that information to consumers. … What is unique to this advertiser is that it has elected to only produce computer notebooks that meet the highest EPEAT ratings. While other manufacturers may have subcategories of lines with similar ratings, none has comparable high ratings for all of the notebooks it produces.†The division went on to say that perhaps the word “family†was confusing, and maybe that could be changed.
Apple, for its part, focused on the division’s conclusion about its use of EPEAT ratings, saying, “Apple thanks the NAD for confirming that its MacBooks, as compared to all of the notebooks made by any given manufacturer, are the world’s greenest notebook computers. The NAD’s ruling is a clear victory for Apple. … Apple believes that in its advertising the term ‘family’ clearly refers to all of its notebook computers, rather than a particular notebook model or group of models. In the interest of the self-regulatory process, however, Apple will replace the word “family†with an alternate word that effectively communicates that its ‘World’s Greenest’ claim pertains to all of Apple’s notebooks.†They have made this change.
One cannot help but wonder how much money it cost for how many lawyers on all three sides to determine that “lineup†had a substantially different meaning than “family†in this context. And, when it is all said and done, it is the consumer that will wind up paying those legal fees so that Apple and Dell can continue to operate at their chosen profit margin. Next, we will no doubt be subjected to carefully worded claims about “lite†computers, with roughly the same results.
Related Posts:
June 20th, 2009
ridiculous. Just an alpha dog competition.