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Dell cites Apple's 'green' claims in Better Business Bureau complaint

In a display of environmental posturing on both sides, Dell lodged a complaint with the advertising industry's self-governing oversight board: The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (NAD). The claim? When Apple says it has the "world's greenest family of notebooks," family could be taken to mean all models of MacBook past and present -- including models that weren't built with the environment in mind.

"Common industry usage of 'family' refers to a particular model or group of models, and not the entire notebook line," argued Dell, according to a post on the New York Times' "Green Inc." blog. Dell also complained about Apple's use of gold EPEAT ratings -- an award that many of Apple's competitors have also earned.

Standing behind their claim, Apple effectively said, "that's right, deal with it": Family, in the context of the ad "refers to its whole line of notebooks, taken in toto, [and] not a particular model or group."

The NAD said there was no problem with Apple communicating its EPEAT ratings to consumers, and commended the company for its commitment to creating an entire line of notebooks that meet the highest EPEAT ratings, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Even so, the NAD suggested that consumers could believe that "family" means a line of products (and not all the products) that a company makes. They recommended that Apple use direct comparisons between MacBooks and competitor notebooks to clarify their claims of environmental friendliness. They also recommended that Apple avoid the use of world's greenest "given the potential for overstatement." Apple? Overstatement? That's unpossible.

Apple was happy with the conclusion, with PR spokesman Steve Dowling telling the New York Times that the NAD had confirmed that MacBooks are indeed the world's greenest notebooks when compared to other manufacturers' entire product lines. It appears that Apple has taken to using the word "lineup" instead of "family" on its website.

Dell issued a statement, saying they "commend the NAD for their part in helping ensure companies represent their products' environmental attributes accurately." Dell has previously lodged advertising complaints against Lenovo, and last year the company had to stop using the slogan "the world's most secure notebooks."



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In a display of environmental posturing on both sides, Dell lodged a complaint with the advertising industry's self-governing oversight...
 

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mabhatter

But the ad calls out meeting a specific spec. That all the Mac notebooks for sale as of right now meet the 5 star rating. That's pretty clear cut and easy to backup. As far as "greenest" again if they watched the keynote, Apple pointed out how they use recyclable aluminum and glass, how they've reduced or eliminated Arsenic glass and PVC wiring. Those are small, expensive things compared to what Dell does, but add up to lots of toxic material not going to consumers in millions of PCs. Apple has just 4 notebook "chassis" to update every 6 months versus the dozen or so Dell has making the job much easier.

Dell is crying because for other companies only certain models meet the "gold" requirements and not the whole years lineup. They really don't like Apple advertising that ANY notebook in their store right now, is really "green"... you don't have to buy a special "greener" model. That's why Mac notebooks start at $999 and not $399.. so Apple has bucks to toss out old lines and not recycle old, inefficient hardware as "new" for years.

June 23 2009 at 1:38 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
lucas

just read the wsj article then you will understand. you don't have to be blind to apples ad campaign.

June 20 2009 at 10:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
kakapo

Dell has a kiosk here in a very large local mall opposite the mega grocery and people actually avoid going by it when there are the sales people present. It seems that the Dell guys will jump in front of a shopping trolley (cart) to try to get people to talk to them. I asked one of the ales people how it was going and he said he was looking at going to work for - are you ready for this - Radio Shack! He had not made a sale in three weeks.

Here in Oz, Dell products aren't the most loved or appreciated, I guess.

There never is a right time buy a Dell. (I should copyright and trade mark that!)

Cheers

June 19 2009 at 6:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ernie.

Apple only does that to make statistics easier to understand for the average consumer.

June 19 2009 at 5:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ian

"taken in toto"
Sorry, what? Did you mean taken in "total"??

June 19 2009 at 4:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Ian's comment
Robert Palmer

"In toto" is latin for "completely" or "altogether."

http://www.answers.com/topic/in%20toto

TMYK!

June 19 2009 at 7:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
TEG

Well, for the most part, Apple is correct. Dell (and most other compter makers) make their computers out of Plastic. Plastic, while recycleable in many cases, changes form each time, and can only be recycled a certain number of times, whereas the Aluminum and Glass in most Apple products, and be recycled a greater number of times, if not ad infinitum.

June 19 2009 at 4:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
lee

Who cares !!!!

Computers are tools, does Dell really think they are losing sales because Apple greener notebooks ? Give me a break.

This is as pathetic as Microsoft's latest attempts at turning trying to turn a turd into a rose.

By the way my hammer is greener than yours. :)

June 19 2009 at 4:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
djfred

Dell might want to watch it's step here. The fix, clarifying that every notebook Apple manufactures is up to the latest environmental standards as opposed to offering a few green boutique models here and there, makes them sound a lot worse than the the current ads do.
Consumers are pretty good at ignoring generalized claims like "greenest" and "best of" as so much marketing hoohah, but the believability factor increases exponentially when you start adding specifics. notebook
Since the specifics in this case are that Apple has a real, full-time commitment to environmentalism throughout it's entire line of notebooks and Dell doesn't, Apple would win on both merit and perception.

June 19 2009 at 2:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
nittany4

maybe they should shut the company down and give the money back to the shareholders

dude, your computer sucks

June 19 2009 at 2:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tacktful

@ johnny - exactly! Hilarious! Makes dell's response to nad's outcome painful

@ galley - lol

June 19 2009 at 1:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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