Green Conversations!

By JOHN DRAKE, Boston Globe

Even the New England Confectionery Co. is jumping on the environmental bandwagon, going green with its pastel-colored Valentine's Day hearts.

In a marketing nod to eco-trendiness, the Revere company yesterday released a list of 10 new sayings with a whimsical nature theme that will appear on its Sweethearts Conversation Hearts this year.

Gift-givers can implore their lovers to "Chill Out," ask if they're "In A Fog," transport them to "Cloud Nine," and grant them a little "Sun Shine."

"It's not a political statement," said Necco's marketing manager Lory Zimbalatti. "It's just concern for the environment."

Other new sayings are "Wild Life," "Nature Lover," "Do Good," "Melt My Heart," "Get My Drift," and "Heat Wave."

The firm has been printing flirty messages on the sweets since the 1860s.

Unlike 2004, when the company Necco ventured into trendy terminology with the introduction of "IM Me," this year's crop seems to include more "classic slang" with a broader appeal, suggested said Boston College marketing expert specialist Kathleen Seiders.

"I mean, 'Heat Wave?' Wasn't that Martha and the Vandellas?" she said, referring to the 1960s Motown group that released the song "(Love is Like a) Heat Wave."

"That's going to reach a very broad-based market, which I'm sure is their intention."