Using guilt to sell

A little snippet here from 'real life'.

I was at the local grocery store earlier, and a fellow came up to me in the dairy aisle with clipboard (not a good sign), asking me if I would please complete a short survey. He had a cart full of bottles of some kind of cleaning liquid by his side.

"No thanks", I replied. "I'm in a hurry".

- "But, it'll only take 30 seconds".

"No thank you".

- "Don't you care about the ENVIRONMENT?" he persisted, with an air of self-righteousness.

Well, at that point he may have just as well waved a red flag in front of my face. My disdain for solicitors of any kind is only surpassed by my total disgust at having the word 'environment' shoved down my throat every time I turn around.

"No!", I snarled back.

- "Not even a bit?", he stared at me incredulously.

"No, not even a bit!"

- "Well! Have a good day then", he muttered and sought out his next victim.

I walked down the aisle amidst a crowd of astonished onlookers.


I am an environmental pariah.

Just don't cross my path today.