Alliance for a New Humanity, a non-profit organization helmed by LIME family member Deepak Chopra, has hired Ubiquity Brands to reshape the image of peace, according to this article in New York magazine. And apparently, we aren't the only ones who see the notion of living a greener, healthier, more sustainable lifestyle as the wave of the future.

Ubiquity CEO Jeff Dunn is confident that any lingering vestiges of purple caftans and tie-dyed protestors related to the word “peace” are on the way out. He feels ready to turn the concept into “a consumer trend.”

The branding expert told New York about the “three stages of brand development”––”identifying your target audience, positioning your brand, and finally, ‘activating’ the consumer.” He compares the de-hippie-ing of peace to the way Burberry got hip: “It went from this old English company that sold raincoats to a great fashion force among twentysomethings.”

Dunn’s idea is to create a peace logo, turn it upside-down and slap it on existing products that meet the “true peace” criteria, sort of a “Green Housekeeping seal of approval,” writes reporter Jada Yuan. Peace brand credit cards may be in the works.

For those of us who find all of this a tad antithetical and unsettling, maybe we should consider that our economy is based on shopping. And if consumers––and corporations––can be prodded into going green or peaceful, for whatever reasons, that can only be a good thing, right? Of course what would really help our planet and peace is an extreme slowdown in consumption, not just repositioned consumption. But that's a much harder sell, isn't it?

Image: richlabonte.net