Eco – A marketing tool?

My best friend sent me a link a week ago, suggesting we should try this specific restaurant in London. After having a quick peruse I asked my friend why she wanted to go and her answer was ‘because it’s eco-friendly’. Underneath the title of the restaurant name, it said ‘Eco-cuisine & bar’. This made me think how businesses use the word ‘eco’ so freely, making them believe that they are doing good.

After hearing her response I did some more research and found out that they offered an unlimited buffet for the price of £14.90. The aim of the buffet is to eat your moneys worth plus more, thus you try and exceed the average amount of food you should typically eat. The customer for this specific establishment is led to believe that they can eat more, as they think it is acceptable to have second helping to an ‘exotic sprouted chickpea coconut curry’. I don’t deny that it is probably a healthier option than an all you can eat buffet at Jimmy Spices, but I firmly believe using the word ‘eco’ should be considered more carefully.

It is inevitable that there will be a surplus of food, as I would imagine they would have to cook more food than they anticipated. So does this really fit in the bill of being ‘eco’? Yes, the food is healthy but what about the wastage?

 

In addition, to sell the idea of eating raw aubergines, they wrote about how many famous people achieved great success because they were either vegan or vegetarian. Then they proceeded with the name-dropping technique and used examples such as Mahatma Ghandi, Albert Einstein and Brigitte Bardot. Subconsciously, to some degree this will have registered our brains and made us think ‘why not become the next Einstein? Lets eat more steamed broccoli to achieve this. It should not be forgotten that there are always characters who defy such examples (e.g. Steve Jobs who was on a fruitarian diet, which aided his death).

So, by having the word ‘eco’ really does seem to make the difference. How does the restaurant make themselves different to others, especially in central London? Having the word ‘eco’ instantly has positive connotations to the reference it is being made to, and the combination of the notorious celebrities work in conjunction with the ‘eco’ mantra.