The Firebreak's Filthy Fifteen (Part 3)
Marketing Transition Products as the "Better Way" (... to Profit)
The last five marketing scams in the 2025 Firebreak Filthy Fifteen look at how marketing opportunists get involved in campaigns for systemic change, trying to get ahead of the curve on the transitions to what is promised to be a better, more sustainable world.
This is the third and final part of the Firebreak’s Filthy Fifteen. Part 1 looked at how labels were manipulated to amplify bogus fear campaigns and Part 2 considered the marketing opportunities from widespread western chemophobia.
While continuous improvement is a basic foundation for product stewardship, the activist campaigns are demanding an immediate systemic transition (away from fossil fuels, plastics, conventional farming, the capitalist system…). As irrational and rushed as these transition campaigns are, they have been amplified by those companies or NGOs with an alternative that would benefit from such transitions.
In the last decade, the nature of activist campaigns has shifted from trying to remove certain products and substances to trying to transition economies and practices toward their dogmatic ideologies (zero carbon emissions, zero waste, no unhealthy foods, drinks or nicotine products and fewer chemical or pharmaceutical solutions). These extremist campaigns could have been largely ignored if the marketing opportunists had not amplified them to promote their products or ideologies.
11. Zero Waste and Recycled Consumer Products
Zero impact on the environment is a marketing promise that will never be kept, and still we hear it every day. Products made with 100% recycled material does not mean there is less impact (if one considers the environmental footprint of the energy, additives, wastewater and transport costs involved in the recycling process). Marketing is about making the consumer feel good so reassuring them that the product they buy is actually making the world a better place rather than polluting the planet … well, who wouldn’t want to believe that?
Recycling processes depend on the material and the subsequent use of and market for the recyclate. Paper and aluminum are the most common and the easiest although there is a concern about the energy and wastewater cost. Some plastics are more challenging (from cost, quality and reuse perspectives) but given they are petroleum-based products, the best recycling is energy recovery (ie, incinerator power generation).
The most recent marketing scam is to claim that my swimsuit or running shoes have been made from recycled (rescued) ocean waste. This is an emotional campaign given the stories of the mythical Great Pacific Garbage Patch. There might be a small part of the clothing with recycled plastics, but it is unimaginable that the millions of tons of plastics used in the production of our running shoes were to come from a few Ocean Cleanup boats. The oceans would be clean in a week.
12. Zero Carbon Emissions (Net Zero)
Climate change has been a marketer’s dream come true. People are convinced that the planet is going to hell in a handbasket due to our horrible consumption practices, and that small changes to our shopping habits can save Mother Earth. Fossil fuels have been identified as the main culprit and we now have to rectify this by choosing renewable energy and buying an electric car (EV) – the ultimate virtue signals for the affluent. Are these products actually emitting no CO2 into the atmosphere? Are they any better for the environment? Of course not.
The solar panels on our rooves have serious environmental and energy impacts in the mining and production of the minerals and heavy metals as well as the recycling process.
Heat pumps in many northern climates seem to use more electricity than they save.
EVs are even worse given the poor durations of their batteries and the power sources needed to charge them. Today’s battery technologies will be out of date in 18 months so why would any rational person spend so much of their own money on an EV today?
If you want zero emissions, cut back your consumption, turn the lights off and home heating down, don’t buy any car at all and take the bus. But that means you would not be buying anything. That would be a challenge to our marketers.
13. Non-Tobacco Nicotine Products
There is a revolution going on in the health harm reduction field. Large numbers of smokers have been able to quit smoking by shifting to non-tobacco nicotine products like e-cigarettes, snus and nicotine pouches. The impact would be far greater if activists, regulators, foundations and the media would stop spreading false claims about the risks of these novel products. Here the scam is in how these groups are doing everything they can to stop the consumer-led transition to reduced harm products.
Nicotine does not cause cancer or increase the risk of heart disease so the opportunity for smokers to switch to the substantially less harmful non-combustible alternatives to tobacco has greatly reduced the negative health effects from smoking. But many smokers are unable to buy these products or are confused on the benefits of vaping or pouches due to the relentless campaigning from well-funded health NGOs, the WHO, pharmaceutical marketing tactics (favoring nicotine patches and gums) and anti-industry activists. Some of their false or misleading claims include risks from vaping ingredients, flavors, popcorn lung, and a wide range of scare stories unrelated to vaping (see the UK National Health Service page debunking all of the myths spread about this harm reduction tool. Activists also claim, wrongly, that larger numbers of young people are taking up vaping, and using it as a gateway to cigarette smoking.
While these anti-nicotine campaigners are not marketing a competing product, they are promoting their unrealistic alternative of a smoke-free, vape-free world. By not accepting a reduced harm approach to risk management, by deciding policy solely on the objective of continuing the denormalization of the tobacco industry and by funding activists to identify risks that simply are not significant or plain false, millions will suffer and die needlessly by the inflexibility of the activists’ dogmatic fundamentalism. That is more than a scam; that is a well-funded tragedy.
14. Supporting a healthy immune system
Most people have immune systems that should protect them from infections, parasites and viruses (developed over time and through exposures). Except for the immunocompromised, if you sleep well, eat in moderation and exercise, your immune system should be strong enough to fend off most attacks. But we are told that we need to take supplements to support our immune system (and there seems to be any type of mineral or vitamin or energy packaged in a pill). Most of the supplements won’t cause any harm … they just won’t do anything.
There are, of course, diseases that human immune systems were not prepared to combat, and science has developed vaccines to protect populations. The anti-vax community, in rejecting vaccines, have turned to the supplements industry to boost the immune system. Grifting influencers in the wellness industry amplify fear among their followers and then offer a discount code to some unapproved and untested snake oil. As many supplements are merely overloading the system with minerals a healthy regime is already getting, the body simply disposes the useless supplements down the toilet (in the same way supplements consumers dispose their money).
15. Detox Programs
With all of the chemicals, contaminants and pollutants in our bodies, terrified consumers are looking for a means to take control of their health. The detox market is a lucrative business of pills, enemas and diets that promise a restoration to complete health. Once marketed to the affluent and influential via exclusive spas, today detox products are being pushed onto the mainstream via online marketing. Many of these programs and products are not only expensive, but also quite risky or unpleasant (I don’t recommend coffee enemas or fecal transplants). Most advertise natural or organic substances in their detox regimes (see previous marketing scams in our Filthy Fifteen).
But the body itself has a natural detox function that is quite efficient at removing contaminants. It is not lost on observers that detox supplement programs usually require consumers to also drink a lot of water while taking the pills. Water, exercise, sleep and low stress are what helps the body detox itself. But it is hard to get any rest or destress when we are terrified over all of the chemicals and pollutants in our bodies.
It is hard to sell a consumer expensive lines of supplements (see ‘Filthy Fourteen’) if they realize all they need is more water, a nice walk and less stress. So marketers first have to scare consumers and then sell them a solution.
A Filthy Conclusion
The Firebreak’s Filthy Fifteen not only highlights activist-driven marketing scams. It also demonstrates that brands are often as guilty as the activists in spreading confusion and public fear. Whereas activist zealots often truly believe the misinformation they are spreading, the marketing opportunists that capitalize on these fears coming out of consumer ignorance and vulnerability are mere profiteers who do not believe the nonsense they are amplifying and reinforcing. Whether it is a corporate brand manager, a litigation consultant or an activist scientist, the bottom-feeders highlighted in the Filthy Fifteen are truly despicable people.
More light needs to be shone on these rats.