Ecotrust gets the Harper treatment

This story has been percolating along in the background for a while now (and it’s the subject of the one and, so far, only WTF I’ve written for Technorati):

You know those multi-million-dollar announcements that Harper has been making in provinces across the country, as he rebrands the Conservatives as übergreens? They’re all coming under an umbrella program that the PMO has dubbed “ecoTrust”.

Problem: they stole the name. Ecotrust Canada is a very successful, very effective non-governmental organization that works to build sustainable businesses in what it terms the conservation economy. (Full disclosure here: we’ve been doing some work with them at Social Signal.) And for some reason, Ecotrust isn’t convinced that confusion between their organization and the Harper Conservative initiative is going to do them any favours.

There are two interpretations of what’s happened here, neither especially flattering to the Harper government:

They’re so out of touch with what is already being done around sustainability that they’d never heard of Ecotrust. Also, they didn’t check to see if that cool name they thought up was taken.
They knew the name was already taken… but it tested so well that they couldn’t resist lifting it. (c.f. culture of entitlement)

Stephen Harper is now wearing some free-range organic egg on his face, and deservedly so. Whether that will translate into a change of name for his program or a large cash settlement for Ecotrust remains to be decided.

But what I’m really waiting to see is what happens if they decide to tough it out. Because the word is that the feds are about to adopt the movie and recording industries’ agenda on intellectual property with a vengeance. And it’ll be pretty strange to have Ottawa out there banging the death-to-all-IP-pirates drum when they’re flying the Jolly Roger in the PMO’s marketing department.

← How to get Democracy to stop freezing while "loading channel guide" The insanely good Paparazzi! has become insanelier gooder →

2 Comments

Don Fenn on 25 Mar 2007 at 15:15

You are a goof.

The rest of Canada never heard of Ecotrust before and quite frankly don’t give a damn.

Maybe all the Bill Browns, Dick Smiths, or Bill Whites should start looking for legal recourse or name changes.

Rob on 26 Mar 2007 at 09:54

Don, it’s not like Ecotrust’s name is a common one. And while you may not have heard of Ecotrust before (incidentally, the rest of Canada? Much larger than just you), many, many folks have… because they’re very active in communities up and down the BC coast, fostering new sustainable businesses that create high-quality jobs – often in places where those jobs are urgently needed.

You can bet that the people whose families rely on those jobs do care about the work that Ecotrust does. Not all of them can name the organization… but they know how important these enterprises are for the long-term survival of their communities.

Much of Ecotrust’s success is due to the confidence all of the players involved have in the organization’s integrity. Muddy the waters as to just who Ecotrust is, and you throw that confidence into a very uncertain place.

Don Fenn on 25 Mar 2007 at 15:15
You are a goof.
The rest of Canada never heard of Ecotrust before and quite frankly don’t give a damn.
Maybe all the Bill Browns, Dick Smiths, or Bill Whites should start looking for legal recourse or name changes.
Rob on 26 Mar 2007 at 09:54
Don, it’s not like Ecotrust’s name is a common one. And while you may not have heard of Ecotrust before (incidentally, the rest of Canada? Much larger than just you), many, many folks have… because they’re very active in communities up and down the BC coast, fostering new sustainable businesses that create high-quality jobs – often in places where those jobs are urgently needed.
You can bet that the people whose families rely on those jobs do care about the work that Ecotrust does. Not all of them can name the organization… but they know how important these enterprises are for the long-term survival of their communities.
Much of Ecotrust’s success is due to the confidence all of the players involved have in the organization’s integrity. Muddy the waters as to just who Ecotrust is, and you throw that confidence into a very uncertain place.