The Green Hero Project (redux) - revisiting a cultural lens study by The SOAP Group

HEROES

Hero fetishism is alive and well in American Pop Culture and LOHAS.   Hollywood has grasped the formulaic tale of the hero and won’t let go.  The party started in 1978 with Superman.  And more recently, Hollywood has had to go deep into fringe heroes like The Watchmen and Kick-Ass (due out April 16) to satisfy our large appetite.

Even our political system has adopted the mythologies, visuals and narratives of the hero’s tale. Obama was portrayed as an everyman, turned champion.  And even the graffiti artists picked up on it the narrative.  

Look at Al Gore’s personal narrative as it follows the classic hero’s journey (the monomyth) as defined by Joseph Campbell and others.  Here's an over-simplified version:

1.  An everyman is born: the robotic vice president.

2.  The hero goes on a journey: Gore disappears into the forest (of Deep Sustainability) (and returns with a beard no less).

3.  The hero battles evil:  Gore and Bush43 lock horns to battle for the kingdom.

4.  The hero returns to his community and is bestowed with treasure:  Nobel and Oscar.

This narrative pattern, to more rich and complex degrees than I can go into here, is equally prevalent in Star Wars as it is in Harry Potter.  Once you see it, it is everywhere.

Culturally, we love heroes.  Can’t get enough of them in fact.  And LOHAS is no different.  From Hirshberg and Hollander, we look to these heroes for leadership and, perhaps even, salvation.

As has been the case for centuries, heroic icons remain potent social influencers. Often motivated by duty, heroes not only bring positive change to the society in which they reside, but they provide a physical manifestation of hope (sound familiar?) for what is to come.  

THE GREEN HERO PROJECT

In late 2008 SOAP launched the Green Hero Project.  Using the lens of the hero, to better understand and track changes in the perception of sustainability, we set up www.mygreenhero.com to survey self-defined “green consumers.”  Specifically, we wanted to look at five key features of modern green heroes:

1. Authenticity (does a green hero’s authenticity matter?)
2. Influence (do they influence our purchasing patterns?)
3. Trustworthiness (do we trust them?)
4. Aspiration (do we want to be like them?)
5. Impact (are the saving the planet?)

To get to some answers we chose nine influential archetypes and asked site visitors to rank them according to our 5 key features.  Those archetypes where:

1. The Politician 
2. The Celebrity 
3. The Scientist 
4. The Treehugger
5. The Soccer Mom/Dad
6. The Eco-Entrepreneur
7. The Green Socialite
8. The Business Person 
9. The Vegetarian

RESULTS

Here are the “Cliffs Notes” of the results showing the top 3 heroes for each category. (Link to free full report at the end of this post)

Authenticity: Do you think they are authentically green?

1. Treehugger 

2. Scientist 

3. Eco-Entrepreneur 

Influence: How much influence do they have on the issues? 

1. Business Person 

2. Scientist 

3. Politician

Trustworthiness: When they speak do you listen? 

1. Scientist 

2. Eco-Entrepreneur 

3. Business Person

Aspiration: Do you aspire to be like them? 

1. Scientist 

2. Eco-Entrepreneur 

3. Treehugger

Impact: Are they saving the planet? 

1. Scientist 

2. Eco-Entrepreneur 

3. Business Person

We also asked participants to vote for their real-life (in most cases) Green Heroes. Seven different genres were evaluated, providing five names to vote on, as well as a write-in option.   Here’s who people on the brink of 2009 saw as their green heroes.

Businessperson Green Hero 

1. Gary Hirschberg, Stonyfield 35%

2. John Mackey, Whole Foods 16%

3. T. Boone Pickens, Oil/Wind Tycoon 12%

Scientist Green Hero 

1. David Suzuki 23%

2. Bill McKibbin 17%

3. William McDonough 16%

Celebrity Green Hero 

1. Bono 25%

2. Leonardo DiCaprio 19%

3. Woody Harrelson 16%

Political Green Hero 

1. Al Gore 67%

2. Barack Obama 15%

3. Arnold Schwarzenegger 3%

Activist Green Hero 

1. Rachel Carson 31% 

2. Van Jones 11% 

3. Julia Butterfly Hill 7% 

Corporation Green Hero 

1. Patagonia 27% 

2. Whole Foods 21% 

3. My Local Farm 16% 

Media Green Hero 

1. Mother Jones 17% 

2. Grist 13% 

3. The Daily Green 11% 

VILLAINS

Of course Batman is just Bruce Wayne without the Joker and Spiderman is just Peter Parker without Venom.  You can’t look at Heroes without also looking at Villains.  So we launched a companion survey at www.mygreenvillain.com
 

Note:  The full Green Hero Project Report contains a special bonus section on “My Green Villain.”

WHAT’S NEXT

We’re hoping to continue this lens study so that we can track Heroic LOHAS trends over time.  If you have a few minutes, visit the sites at www.mygreenhero.com and  www.mygreenvillain.com to take the surveys.

A copy of the full 2008 report is available for free here.

Up Up and Away, 

Johnny Monomyth

 
John Rooks is the President of The SOAP Group, a consulting firm activating sustainability and social justice through communication projects that create positive cultural dialogue.  www.thesoapgroup.com.