Want to save the environment?


I often quote Lord Salisbury, one of more lugubrious of Queen Victoria’s prime ministers, who said: “One thing long experience of life has taught me is that you never should trust experts.”

This maxim applies with special force to do-gooders.

Take recycling. Next time you see a piece bearing some pious message about “this was printed on recycled paper”, take the article in question and wipe your arse on it.

The processes (especially the bleaching) used to recycle are far more damaging to the environment than the alternative.

And I might add that for every tree used in Scandinavia to produce paper, two or three more are planted. It’s the law, and I imagine the same applies in Canada.

That’s just a snippet I learned from a printer the other day. It’s true.

The most damaging thing for the environment is the hot air produced by experts who fly at vast expense to exotic spots where they get together to pollute the surrounding area – and the minds of those who listen to them

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

5 Comments

  1. Mr. Bird,

    Thanks for a wonderful reminder of how stupid “experts” can be (and, I might add, self-proclaimed experts).

    There is so much dis-information out there, especially when there is money to be made via that dis-information.

    And that’s true in nearly every field a government gets involved in at all.

    – John Thomas

  2. Anonymous

    “The most damaging thing for the environment is the hot air produced by experts who fly at vast expense to exotic spots where they get together to pollute the surrounding area – and the minds of those who listen to them”

    Isn’t that what you do on your regular jaunts abroad, Mr Bird?

  3. Peter Feilding

    Harsh words by a brave anonymous poster.

    The man doesn’t profess to be on a mission to save the planet unlike said “experts”. How do you propose those at the top of their game travel?

  4. Thank you, Mr. Feilding. I have yet to propose to save anything much apart from a few quid to go to the pub.

    I might add, dear Anonymous, that your idea of a jaunt is not mine. Today I spent 5 and a half hours speaking in Zagreb with simultaneous translation, plus another hour doing two TV interviews, then a drive back to Ljubliana. Where I come from this is called bloody hard work.

  5. Rupert

    The whole global warming issue is total bollocks. It was warmer in the UK during the Roman period than it is today with more wine produced in England than in what is now called Italy, followed by a cooling down, then a very warm Middle Ages and then cooling down to the 18th century and hey, now it’s warming up again . This is a blatant stealth tax opportunity exploited by politcal pygmies.

    June 12th is carbon belch day, http://www.carbonbelchday.com/calculator.asp?PID=16628372

    What do these cretins think that oxygen producing trees live on?

    Greens and Liberals should read The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming to get a more balanced view.

    Anyway, if these cretins can tell me what the weather will be in 50 years, how come they haven’t got a clue what this weekend will be like?

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