I took my sister (age 7), brother (age 6) and son (age 3) to see Wall-E this weekend and was floored by the imagery of garbage skyscrapers and by the blatant environmental message, which wouldn’t have made it to the mainstream movie theaters a few years ago. It had the socially-conscious feel of an independent movie.

The movie was so powerful that I became incredibly self-aware of my own actions within the first few minutes and before long I felt guilty to be drinking a bottle of water, eating popcorn from a large paper bag, and snacking on a box of Snowcaps. Multiply that by the hundreds of thousands of theater-goers and think about all of that trash produced by the movie industry.

I do marketing for a book publishing company, Quadrille, that is publishing a green home decoration book, Urban Eco Chic by Oliver Heath. We went to great lengths to get the book printed on FSC certified paper, both to underscore the credibility of the book and because it’s the right thing to do. Most of my marketing will be done online, saving paper and shipping.

I think a better Wall-E promotion, rather than cheap plastic toys, would be to sell environmentally-friendly water bottles and snack packaging at the theaters. These would have prompted discussions between parents and their children far more than toys.