New game guns down environmentalists

Postal III video game takes aim at PETA and Al Gore... Has 'green fatigue' turned into anti-green rage?

Thu, Oct 22 2009 at 8:05 PM EST

(All images courtesy Postal III)

Makers of the popular Postal video game series have just released Postal III which dispenses with commonplace zombie enemies and faceless military combatants and targets instead those oh-so-annoying environmental activists.

Well actually they are called "ecotologists" which by the description of the game creator are like PETA activists combined with scientologists. Their leader? A dead ringer for Al Gore.

I heard that a recent marketing study showed if the word "green" is in a web-link users are 10x less likely to click on it over a non-green link. I'm still trying to confirm the report, but whether or not the number is exactly right there is no doubt that marketers have overexposed users to the term resulting in an epidemic of "green fatigue."

This is bad news for the environmental movement as a whole. Back in 2006, the marketing industry hopped on the green bandwagon faster than a pack of wolves in heat and as a result the fledgling "green movement" was in my opinion more or less co-opted by an industry seeking to commoditize green values in the sheep's clothing of convenient recyclable packaging (and other such greenwashing tactics).

All of us lifers have been watching this trend with dismay, but I don't think anyone would have predicted that the "green fatigue" of young consumers would morph into a more violent anti-green sentiment.

Well it has, thanks to Postal III.

Warning to environmentalists... gun up. Maybe in Postal IV marketing execs will be the next enemy target, and you'll get your own chance to go postal.