In recent years, rhetorical scholars have turned to study the materiality of rhetoric as well as the rhetoricity of material, often introducing a posthumanist or anti-anthropocentric stance rejecting mind-body dualism(s), while often also turning to affirmative frameworks as an alternative to criticism. Introducing the Nordic Waste scandal in Denmark in 2023, we point to the risk of toxically affirming the perspective of environmentally harmful corporations in rhetoric centering materiality and affirmation.

Much rhetorical research in the Nordic region has a strong foundation in the rhetorical tradition dating back to Aristotle (sometimes even predating him), even when researching phenomena unfolding contemporarily with crises and opportunities that the wise men of Athens and Rome could never have imagined.Researchers who write from this traditionalist standpoint explicitly or implicitly argue that classical rhetoric holds timeless potential for understanding and improving society.The Virtues of Green Marketing: A Constructive Take on Corporate Rhetoric by Swedish scholars Erik Bengtson and Oskar Mossberg aligns with this trend.The book (published open access) proposes that we not only see the limitations in green marketing (that is, a company's public branding efforts in sustainability and climate contexts) but also the possibilities for a more virtuous business rhetoric for the common good.Through ten chapters, one devoted to three cases, the authors argue that a green marketing rhetoric informed by the ideals of Quintilian, Cicero, and Isocrates about the good speaker can push modern consumer society in the right direction in current and future climate and environmental crises.Bengtson is a rhetorical scholar at Uppsala University as well as lecturer at Södertörn University.His research activities have an impressive range, including climate rhetoric, AI-based language models, and more theoretical discussions of the concept of doxa.Oskar Mossberg, also employed at Uppsala University, conducts research in law, including environmental and climate marketing, and the connection between law and rhetoric.The book thus draws on both authors' fields of expertise, and it also incorporates various research fields such as economic and sociological theory and marketing studies in an interdisciplinary approach.1.