wall soap

Download! What's your favorite color? Pink! Green! no Blue! Read about the posters here!

keep on givin'

First method wanted to give lots of their cleaning goodies to your favorite charity! Now they wanna give YOU some, too!

re-nest is promoting the contest, and it's short and to the point!

"method is the leader in premium healthy and eco-friendly home care. One winner will receive the entire line of cleaning, personal care and baby + kid products ($150 worth!) in a variety of yummy method fragrances."

You've got only until December 19, at 12:00 PM EST; so get going! (Easy directions on the site!)

carbon copy

Hmm! Check out that photo? What might you see?

I stumbled upon this product at my local TJ Maxx a couple of days ago! It's a candle line from a brand called beanpod candles (soy candles). But what really caught my eye was the jar it came in. method's old ceramic soy candle jar, painted a shiny black! But the shape was totally method! I wonder if this might be a rip-off design, or another case of method having leftover containers it sold to another brand (as they've done in the past.) Curious! (What's really interesting is this particular jar is nowhere to be found on their website, so hmm...)

hanukkah method style

How-to here! (Happy Hanukkah!)

win + give

Win a year's worth of products for your charity! Yeah, uhm, that's all I have to say! Cause it's so very awesome it's worth repeating (yes, you can still use the word awesome! Even though it's really 80's! So there!) Win a year's worth of products for your charity! Oh hey, one more time! Win a year's worth of products for your charity! - from method! How cool is this!

"Charitable giving is important to method, and we’re thankful for all the people against dirty who give back to their communities. so to help you help others, tell us in the comments section below what non-profit (pick just one) is close to your heart and deserves method products. we’ll randomly choose one person against dirty to win a year’s worth of method products for the non-profit of their choice."

The total value is $360. Contest ends 12/16/09, 11:59pm pst. You must be 18 to enter. Non-profit must be a registered 501C3 and be in the US or Canada. One entry per person.

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So! Get to it! And good luck (for you, and your charity!) And remember, you only have until next Wednesday, so don't dawdle (yes, I just said dawdle!)

gifts galore

method just keeps on giving, and we keep on receiving! (Yay us!) need some adorable gift tags for all the goodies you're gonna be giving out this holiday season? Well, method's gone and designed some spiffy ones for you! And the good news is, all you have to do is click, download and cut'em out! Tada! Intant gift tags!

While you're waiting for your tags to print, why not head on over to method's website and start a little method holiday shopping (for others, OR yourself. Shh, we'll never tell!) Right now they're giving us free shipping! You can get the free shipping on all method products when you enter the code FREESLEIGHRIDE at checkout. (Valid through 12/16/2009.) So jingle jangle on over, and clean up! (See, see what I did there. Oh, that was good, wasn't it. Oh, ok, not that creative, eh? Well, I can't win'em all!)

ho ho download-e-oh!

method's taken their website and holiday-ed it all up! And left us a little treat under the tree, ta' boot! Right now you can click on over to method's official website, or hey, just click this link here and get a big ole' $2.00 (yes, $2.00!) off method coupon! Good to use in retail stores! So go ho ho ho, and download! Wait, if you went ho ho ho that might mean you were Santa, and Santa doesn't open the gifts he gives out, so perhaps you should just drink some eggnog, and download! Or hot chocolate! Or hot apple cider! Or whatever the heck holiday drink you like, 'kay? (Glogg, anyone?)

(PS - You can only download one coupon per household. Just lettin' you know, cause if you try for more, you'll just be wasting paper. Trust me on this!)

do-buy

You know, I don't usually go down the possibly political road here on method lust. And I'm not actually sure this is "political" anyway, but just in case, you've been warned. Ha ha!

I've just discovered this amazing, albeit extremely eye-opening article on Dubai. Dubai, you know, one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Yes, you know, that crazy city who's built it's own man made islands. The one with the Burj Dubai, the tallest man-made skyscraper in the world. - Glitz, glamour, money. That Dubai. (Oh and yeah, the Dubai that has just admitted it can't pay back much of it's debt right now. Just wait and see the irony of that one, when you read the article.)

Well, people, all that glitters ain't gold. Now what's this got to do with a cleaning products website? Well, I like to think of method lust as not only a hub for all things method, but as you've seen in the past, for all things environmental (ok, maybe not ALL things, but lots of things!) But it sorta goes a step further. Because if we're out there trying to make a difference on this planet, to keep the environment safe and happy; we also need to be trying to keep mankind safe and happy as well. It all sorta goes hand in hand, don't you think? Clean environment, happy Mother Earth, caring mankind (towards one another) = peaceful coexistence. People friendly means LOTS of things, right? Right.

As far as I'm concerned, Dubai is failing. - In both respects. Honestly, that place just scares me. Creeps me out. I can't even explain why. But just in case you're thinking I've really stepped over the line, gone off the rails, and this has nothing to do with environmentalism; oh contraire my friend, read this excerpt:

"...I wanted to understand how the government of Dubai will react, so I decided to look at how it has dealt with an environmental problem that already exists – the pollution of its beaches. One woman – an American, working at one of the big hotels – had written in a lot of online forums arguing that it was bad and getting worse, so I called her to arrange a meeting. "I can't talk to you," she said sternly. Not even if it's off the record? "I can't talk to you." But I don't have to disclose your name... "You're not listening. This phone is bugged. I can't talk to you," she snapped, and hung up.

The next day I turned up at her office. "If you reveal my identity, I'll be sent on the first plane out of this city," she said, before beginning to nervously pace the shore with me. "It started like this. We began to get complaints from people using the beach. The water looked and smelled odd, and they were starting to get sick after going into it. So I wrote to the ministers of health and tourism and expected to hear back immediately – but there was nothing. Silence. I hand-delivered the letters. Still nothing."

The water quality got worse and worse. The guests started to spot raw sewage, condoms, and used sanitary towels floating in the sea. So the hotel ordered its own water analyses from a professional company. "They told us it was full of fecal matter and bacteria 'too numerous to count'. I had to start telling guests not to go in the water, and since they'd come on a beach holiday, as you can imagine, they were pretty pissed off." She began to make angry posts on the expat discussion forums – and people began to figure out what was happening. Dubai had expanded so fast its sewage treatment facilities couldn't keep up. The sewage disposal trucks had to queue for three or four days at the treatment plants – so instead, they were simply drilling open the manholes and dumping the untreated sewage down them, so it flowed straight to the sea.

Suddenly, it was an open secret – and the municipal authorities finally acknowledged the problem. They said they would fine the truckers. But the water quality didn't improve: it became black and stank. "It's got chemicals in it. I don't know what they are. But this stuff is toxic."

She continued to complain – and started to receive anonymous phone calls. "Stop embarrassing Dubai, or your visa will be cancelled and you're out," they said. She says: "The expats are terrified to talk about anything. One critical comment in the newspapers and they deport you. So what am I supposed to do? Now the water is worse than ever. People are getting really sick. Eye infections, ear infections, stomach infections, rashes. Look at it!" There is feces floating on the beach, in the shadow of one of Dubai's most famous hotels.

"What I learnt about Dubai is that the authorities don't give a toss about the environment," she says, standing in the stench. "They're pumping toxins into the sea, their main tourist attraction, for God's sake. If there are environmental problems in the future, I can tell you now how they will deal with them – deny it's happening, cover it up, and carry on until it's a total disaster." As she speaks, a dust-storm blows around us, as the desert tries, slowly, insistently, to take back its land..."

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Uhm, yeah. And did I also mention residences of Dubai have the biggest average carbon footprint of any human being – more than double that of an American. Oh, and don't even get me started on what it takes to build a man made island. Can you even comprehend that? Wanna read the entire article? I'm telling you it's long. It's depressing. Perhaps even shocking. But it's HIGHLY worth the read. So take off those ADHD blinders, and settle in. And I'd LUST knowing your thoughts after you've digested this.

snarky bubbles

Wow, method's made it to that snarky land called gawker.com! Which usually isn't a good thing. Being how gawker is all snark, all the time.

In a post titled "Everybody's Mad at Dolls, Cartoons", discussing the new African American Barbie and methods recent Shiny Suds online ad (I know, odd combination!), they go on to say:

"We like to "jest" with the advertising industry about how stupid and evil they are, but the truth is that marketing is not easy. Today in Fuzzy Public Outrage: Dolls are racist, and soap bubbles are rapists. Here is one of those "viral" videos you've heard so much about. In it, imaginary cartoon soap bubbles representing chemical soap scum linger around a lady's shower, acting like jerks. That is because the household cleaner company that made it supports rape."

They're jesting (AND snarking!) on that last sentence, as it's linked to this article, over on Advertising Age:

"Household cleaner marketer Method has pulled down a viral video roundly applauded by marketers at the Association of National Advertisers annual conference last month and by most viewers who've seen it because of heated complaints from some women who view it as sexist and even condoning rape.

The "Shiny Suds" video from Droga5, New York, the agency's first work for Method since winning the account a year ago, was a parody of traditional household cleaner advertising meant to support the Household Product Labeling Acts, which would require disclosure of ingredients in household cleaners.

The video, while taken down late last week by Method from its website and Droga5 from YouTube, remains available through unauthorized versions.

Scrubbing Bubbles, which the next day turn into leering perverts commenting on the woman taking a shower and urging her to use a loofah. The message: "You deserve to know what chemicals are in your cleaners."

The video got more than 700,000 views in a week on YouTube and a five-star rating from viewers before Method pulled the plug. Method competitor Unilever seemed to like it, too. Search ads for its Dove brand appeared alongside results for searches on the phrase "Shiny Suds" the day the video first appeared Nov. 18. (A spokeswoman for Dove didn't return an e-mail for comment by deadline).

Little did attendees at the ANA or most commenters on YouTube and Twitter know, however, that the Shiny Suds were really about degrading women and promoting rape, at least in the opinion of commenters on one blog, Shakesville, which posted the video in its "Today in Rape Culture" section.

That elicited more than 100 angry comments from posters, many of whom said they would stop buying Method products and helped produce some of the hundreds of negative responses to the company's website MethodHome.com. Among the posts: "Making us fear chemical residue from cleaning products because it's tied into a rape threat is beyond sickening."

Of course, that's not the point Method was trying to make. "Due to the sensitive nature of [concerned viewers'] concerns we chose to take down the video," a spokeswoman for Method said in an email statement.

"We received a great deal of feedback about the Shiny Suds video, much of it overwhelmingly positive," she said. "We also received feedback from concerned viewers. ... As with all media messages, people will interpret our video in different ways. The purpose of the video was to raise awareness for transparency in cleaning product ingredients, to which we remain committed."

Besides offending some people, the video did result in 2,500 letters supporting the Household Products Labeling Acts to more than 400 members of Congress, according to Method."

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I guess they did manage to get some positive support out of this after all (2,500 letters!) But it's telling to me that over on gawker, commenters immediately began repeating many of the negative posts we've already seen on Facebook, and method's people against dirty blog. I'm thinking method will be glad when this bubble has popped, and gone away.