I was flipping through a magazine today, trying to find some inspiration for my blog. I was excited to see a picture of windmills in an advertisement. Yet, I then realized that the company with the ad, Huawei, is in the telecommunications industry (wireless networks, etc.), not anything related to alternative energy. In fact, when I went to the Huawei website and searched under 'wind,' nothing came up. I then wondered what type of market this company was trying to appeal to with its ad; it almost seemed misleading to me. The ad said, '"Like the idea of a pinwheel to a powerful wind turbine, Huawei innovates for potential growth based on customers' needs." Is the idea that whether you need a simple version or a more complex version of the same concept--like something that spins in the wind--Huawei is your company? I guess the wind power reference was a metaphor for some telecommunications stuff.

In any event, the ad hit me as something of a red flag in that every company seems to be creating an image of being "green" or advocating cleaner energy (even Peabody Energy, a huge coal company, which claimed in a recent ad that coal was a clean energy source...and it didn't even reference clean coal technology). Apparently, companies are understanding the public's growing demand for a cleaner environment, including an increasing interest in alternative energy. Yet, one has to be careful to separate companies who can back up their commitment to the environment and renewable energy, from those that just talk about it or just use these images to promote unrelated products. I guess the good news is that the Huawei ad further supports my thought that most people view wind turbines as aesthetically pleasing; if they did not, Huawei's marketing people would surely not base their whole ad campaign around this image.