Something seemed fishy when the promotional can of Campbell’s Condensed Chicken Noodle Soup showed up on my desk. Instead of the traditional tomato red label, Campbell’s wrapped this can in green – and marked it as now an eco-friendly product.

What had Campbell’s changed to claim its brand had gone “green”?

Nothing.

But because you, the consumer, have to add your own water to Campbell’s condensed soups – just like everyone else since its invention in 1897 – the soup costs less to ship from factory to store than noncondensed soups. So, now, you should feel like an Earth-saving environmentalist if you eat Campbell’s condensed soups.

No wonder, then, that when brandchannel.com surveyed consumers to find the No. 1 Green Brand in America, guess who claimed the top spot?

“None” won. With 12.6 percent of the vote.

“Today, savvy consumers are naturally skeptical and hypersensitive to information designed to sell a brand or product – particularly from brands that have a financial stake in surrounding themselves with the aura of eco-friendliness,” said Jim Thompson, editor of brandchannel.com, one of the nation’s leading brand watchers.

“Why don’t consumers believe promises of going green? Because they’ve been lied to before and aren’t buying into the rhetoric again without proof,” Thompson said. “Brands that go green with their words but not with their actions are underestimating how much this matter means to people, and will suffer by thinking that consumers are either too lazy or too stupid to figure out they are being lied to.”

We can see right through corporate America’s attempt to wrap itself in green like watered-down chicken broth in a glass mug. Mostly.

Take a look at the brands that finished behind “None” when brandchannel.com asked consumers, “Which brand truly made an effort at being green and eco-friendly?”

No. 2: Toyota (10.4 percent) – the car company, for making the hybrid Prius.

No. 3: Apple (6.2 percent) – the computer company, for making recyclable products and packaging.

No. 4: The Body Shop (3.9 percent) – the beauty products company, for using recycled plastic packaging and not testing its products on animals.

No. 5: British Petroleum (3.7 percent) – the oil company known as BP, for spending a lot of money on TV commercials saying, “We’re green.”

If we consumers are so savvy, how can an oil company – or a car maker – convince us they’re saving the Earth?

“Sure,” Thompson said, “an eco-friendly oil company is a paradox. That observation, to a certain extent, is true.”

“However, consumers realize that the entities doing the most damage to the environment are also – by improving their practices and honing their values – in the best position to help the environment,” he said.

Isn’t that like saying a felon with a rap sheet a mile long who, when he gets out of prison, gives half of what he steals to charity rates as more of an upstanding citizen than Mother Teresa?

BP is “making measurable efforts – more than having a green-and-yellow logo,” Thompson said, referring to investments in wind power and restoring lands it no longer uses.

“Are people buying it? No, mostly,” he acknowledged.

But brandchannel.com distilled one clear consumer perception from its survey: Green matters.

“Now, how much does green matter in a down economy? Very much and perhaps very little,” Thompson said. “Sorry. I know that seems like a politician’s answer, but it’s true.

“For example, green brands do well in cases where going green reinforces a tangible, more healthy and sustainable lifestyle choice. Whole Foods, for instance, did very well in the survey. As one individual wrote, praising the brand, ‘They ended using plastic bags. Period. They are now an ecological brand as well as a healthy brand.’ Though our survey didn’t ask for such financial specifics, presumably that enthusiasm for the environment and healthy produce translates into profits for the brand.”

And, Thompson figures, companies that go green ecologically should see more green monetarily: “With today’s financial hardships, of course, many brands are struggling, but such positive perceptions of these brands should indeed help them survive such challenging times.”

Dan Voelpel: 253-597-8785

dan.voelpel@thenewstribune.com

In search of green businesses

Which companies in the Puget Sound region are truly making an effort at being “green”?

E-mail your nominations – along with a few sentences about what makes your nominee so eco-friendly – to Dan Voelpel at dan.voelpel@thenewstribune.com by April 10.

Based on the nominations, Voelpel will post an online survey later this month and write about what makes the top vote-getters so green.