ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a succinct overview of the role of popular culture in communicating environmental issues. The chapter begins by outlining key definitions, surveys scholarly key work in this area, and then moves on to identify some of the most prominent themes in green popular culture. Finally it offers an analysis of how new media activism increasingly utilises a sophisticated grasp of the dynamics of popular culture, through focusing on the example of Greenpeace’s ‘Barbie it’s Over’ campaign. This successful social media campaign placed pressure on the toy manufacturer Mattel, best known for children’s dolls Barbie and Ken, to end its association with a packaging company linked to rainforest destruction in Indonesia.
