01.17.2007

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A Nano Trend To Start 2007

Forget Cloned, GMO, Pesticide-Free...Think Nano-Free

In 1966, a now obscure sci-fi film, Fantastic Voyage, played on contemporary consumers' submissive wonderment at future technological innovations, some of which have come to light in our times in the form of animal cloning, genetic manipulation and irradiation of food. In relation to another new area of technological innovation at the level of the nano particle, the film's bizarre premise is that, in some not-so-distant future, doctors will be able to shrink down in tiny little submarines and journey into a patient's body to engage in microscopic repairs. The film manages to convince the viewer that letting invisible, man-made, nanoparticle-sized objects travel around in our bodies for some medical purpose is a good thing.

And it may turn out that we will view emerging medical nanotechnology with a sense of wonder and appreciation as it starts to appear in hospital wards. One of the most trumpeted uses of nanotechnology will be in advanced medical applications that eliminate the need for costly and dangerous invasive surgeries in the future. While some patients may hesitate to be the first guinea pigs, if the technology proves controllable (i.e., nano-bots don't get "lost in my kidney"), it will probably become as accepted as Lasik eye surgery is today.

At the same time that Fantastic Voyage came out, though, a consumer movement was emerging that takes a very different view of invisible, man-made things. These consumers, inspired by Rachel Carson and others, have continually appeared, periodically, to warn a larger public of the "hidden dangers" in everything from the food we buy to the creams we put on our skin, to the rivers we swim in during the summer time. These "hard core" wellness consumers are the same consumers that first warned us of pesticides, inspired the organic market, fought first against trans-fats and high fructose corn syrup and virtually all other artificial ingredients that, they feel, sabotage our health and well-being. Initially, the rest of us just laughed, finding the fears and concerns of this niche group to be unwarranted. In some cases, these wellness consumers have actually fomented mass consumer perceptions: e.g., high fructose corn syrup is bad for you and will make you fat. Despite the seemingly fringe attributes of these forthright consumers, their intentions run deeper than just reacting with activism to what are viewed as the ills of modern living: The desire to purge one's body and environment of impure, dangerous unseen things is one of the oldest purposes of human rituals. And, for wellness consumers, being "in the know" regarding the latest unseen agent allows them a feeling of enhanced control over their health and well-being.

This week, we're going to be a bit bold and offer our take on the next potentially "big" wellness concern, based on early rumblings we've detected in our ongoing work with wellness consumers. Bearing similarities to other "unseen" but worrisome environmentally related causes such as concerns over genetically modified organisms, irradiation of food, and the now decades-old fear of pesticides, this next anxiety is in reaction to yet another unseen agent, perhaps the most unseen of the unseen agents that humans have ever wrestled with, aside from quarks perhaps.

We believe that nanotechnology is poised to become a source of considerable wellness anxiety in coming years, generating a nano-free movement among consumer public interest groups, however small at first in the packaged goods sector. The reason for our prediction here is two-fold:

1. Engineered nanoparticles are moving away from university science labs and into consumer products: Nanotechnology, which has been in development for years, has finally made it into CPG products through the personal care category: For example, Cosmetics giant L'Oreal has been working on nano-delivery of various cosmetic ingredients for years, and holds dozens of patents in this area. Some beauty products company are structured around nanotechnology: Beyond Skin Science, claims "using patented techniques to create infinitessimally small ingredient structures, Eternalis science now delivers more nutritious, healing ingredients to deeper skin layers than ever thought possible." In other consumer goods, nanotechnology is also appearing in apparel, sports equipment, packaging and food storage products as well. The broadening of nanotechnology use in a variety of consumer products categories will soon generate broader awareness of nanotechnology in the public mindset while bringing it in close proximity to the consumer's body.

2. Expanded use of nanoparticles and related molecular technologies in personal care and related cosmetic and beauty products will trigger what are now seen as well established wellness concerns: Following their attack on conventional cosmetic and personal care products' use of parabens, aluminum and sodium laurel sulfate, advanced wellness consumers are pre-primed to be on the look out for the next lurking techno-contaminant in our everyday grooming products. Consumer activism is already well organized in this area with organized social protest emanating from sources like the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and the Environmental Working Group's assessment of personal care ingredients in its report, Skin Deep. Nanoparticles slip well into activist consumers' highly cautionary view of this particular category as a prime source of "contamination" in our modern environment, and are already under examination by the Organic Consumers Association.

Because they already market products along the lines of purity, some organic personal care companies, such as Alba Botanicals, have already chosen to designate themselves as "nano-free" in anticipation of what may become a growing wellness-oriented concern with the application of a technology whose long-term consequences are, as with all new technological interventions that can enter bodies, unknown. In relation to this trend of increasing use of nanotechnologies in the realm of consumer packaged goods, we believe the "nano-free" response will catch on for the simple reason that wellness consumers, and the organized social activism groups that represent their interests, tend to be highly suspicious of artificially engineered invisible agents of all kinds, with the one exception of dietary supplements (these are protected from this stigma by virtue of the sacred halo attributed to the pill in American culture). Wellness consumers will not see nanoparticles as very controllable when consumed through personal care products that contact the skin. And the very prefix "nano" itself has linguistic qualities that set it up to be seen as the ultimate "hidden agent," much like the virus theory of disease transmission has made all of us anxious when traveling to countries where fatal viruses are rampant.

We believe that the same wellness consumers are much more likely to see surgical/medical applications of nanotechnology as fundamentally different from nanoparticles in shampoo or skin cream, because the former nano-events transpire in a highly monitored, controlled hospital setting where multiple human agents are monitoring the movement and activity of nano-objects introduced into the patient. Outside of healthcare settings and the less invasive use of nanotechnologies in products like apparel or sports equipment, what will transpire as an increasing number of consumers encounter nanoparticles ingested either through cosmetics, lotions or even food and beverage products? Most likely there will be increasing concern over unseen nano ingredients.

Take Away

A key point to consider here is simply to beware of a consumer backlash to advances made in "unseen" technological applications, such as those used in nanotechnologies, animal cloning or genetic manipulation. The diffusion of consumer anxieties and concerns from what are sometimes viewed as fringe or "niche," cause-oriented groups into the mainstream is unpredictable, but at the very least has moved beyond the "boycott" of old and into a new kind of activism where consumers "vote with their dollars" or spread their ire via the Internet in focused campaigns that promote cause-specific books, films or videos. This is true, especially in countries like the United Kingdom, where so-called "ethical consumption" and its relation to organic products, fair trade and innovations surrounding the term "sustainability" have become a major strategic consideration among the country's largest retailers.

With regard to consumer perceptions of nano products, it is important to see what some view as a notoriously anxiety-ridden consumer niche as merely one group driving a much broader consumer trend toward increased empowerment over the products we consume in everyday life and a trend towards a more democratic, even adversarial relationship with both business and government in general. What makes these particular consumers different from other empowered consumer groups, such as "foodies," is that the trends they establish and spread are based on very ancient human anxieties, the same ones that the oldest religious cults and magical acts have tried to address.

As Mork would have put it...Nanu Nanu!

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