We've seen how framing - how information is presented to us - can have significant effects on subsequent behaviour or decisions. A classic example is to consider which of these scenarios seems the most appealing:
'Of 100 patients, 10 are dead after 5 years' or 'Of 100 patients, 90 are alive after 5 years'
The eco clothing company Howies has come up with a great 'reframe' recently, pointing out that the 100% cotton t-shirt is actually not as pure and unadulterated as we might think ½.
They state that "The average 100% cotton T-shirt contains only 73% cotton. The rest is made up of chemicals and resins that were used to grow and make it. Yet, we all think cotton is one of the most natural things around. The truth is, it's not as nice as we'd all like to think.
Indeed, cotton is the world's most sprayed crop. It uses over a quarter of all insecticides used today (see list below). The way they grow it isn't good for the farmer's health, the water table's health, the factory worker's health, the river's health and eventually the sea's health.
That's why we use organic cotton. It costs us 30% more than normal cotton. It means our products cost a little more, but we think it's worth it. After all, you wear your T-shirt next to your skin for 10 hours a day. (Just think how Nicorettes work). The average cotton crop is sprayed 8-10 times a season. Indeed, it takes 17 teaspoons of chemical fertilisers to raise the 9 ounces of cotton needed to make a T-shirt.
The most common pesticides used are: Chlorphynfos (causes brain and foetal damage, impotence and sterility), Cyanazine (causes birth defects and cancer), Dicofol (causes cancer, reproductive damage and tumours), Ethephon (causes mutations), Fluometuron (causes blood and spleen disorders), Metam Sodium (causes birth defects, foetal damage, mutation).
