Greening Our Vices

Among the other products offering feel-good green is "SimCity Societies," the latest iteration of the popular computer game by Electronic Arts. Users can indulge both their inner sloth and their eco credentials as they slouch over their computers picking a sustainable energy source to maintain their virtual cities. And if they don't pick something like hydrogen, natural gas or wind farming, they face the threat of global warming in the form of heat waves and droughts.

And then there are other kinds of feel-good products. Take Solar Sensations, a solar-powered vibrator that is the buzz of the eco-blogosphere. The device comes with a solar panel that has to be charged outdoors--not the best place for so intimate a product. While it was greeted with initial enthusiasm, many retailers have stopped carrying it. "There is the danger of these things being so tangential and unrelated that it does create some skepticism of the product by the consumer," says Nicholas Eisenberger, managing principal of GreenOrder, a New York-based marketing firm whose clients include GE, GM and Office Depot. "The risk you run is getting so silly that it doesn't have meaning anymore." Or that the product you're touting isn't really doing anything to make the planet a better place.

© 2007