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Show 282 33). So even though bp was charged with greenwashing by academics, public intellectuals, and environmental social movements, the corporate subject still succeeded in its efforts to simultaneously maximize profits and produce environmentally friendly structures of feeling. Even John Stauber, one of the leading environmental advocates against corporate greenwashing, who co-authored Toxic Sludge is Good for You, had to concede that bp's campaign was brilliantly effective: "Have they convinced people through advertising and PR that they are a better company? I think so," he said. Big ad budgets, full-page ads in The New York Times and branding campaigns do work. For every one piece in The Wall Street Journal or PR Watch on BP not living up to the standard-articles limited to a small audience-they're reaching tens of millions every day with worldwide advertising. (Solman, 2008, para. 38) bp's helios thus tells a success story of how logos can productively evoke structures of feeling that eventally alter the networks of relations that give corporate subjects form. bp went from just another environmentally destructive oil company to a perceived environmental leader. Although some accused this visual corporate subject of greenwashing, bp still sold more oil and was recognized as more environmentally sustainable than its competitors. This point not only demonstrates that logos are argumentative, but that affect is more argumentatively effective than good reasons when considering, at least, the relations that stabilize the visual corporate subject. It was through affect, not good reasons, that bp achieved its environmentally friendly corporate persona. |
