Filtered Water, Funny Aftertaste

The next best thing about Brita's "Drink Responsibly" campaign, developed by DDB San Francisco, is the clarity of the strategy and subtlety of the creative. "Forty-five minutes in the traffic. Forever in a landfill." So obvious, so chill, it's a  "why didn't I think of that?" moment.

A few haters have slammed the spots on account of the guilt the campaign supposedly dishes out. Whatever.

Best thing about the campaign is what you might call a progressive back-lash against it, courtesy the two-way power of social media (including a Facebook group). Earlier this year, Enviro geeks pushed back against Brita in some pretty high-vis forums to say, "Okay, if you're all about saving the planet, what about the disposable filter cartridges that stay forever in a landfill?"

Looks like Brita came to the table and will now start taking back used filters for recycling. Which brings up the question: were they there in the first place?

The answers is, well, um, not really. DDB SF's site suggests the campaign had a pretty cynical, though perhaps defensible, genesis:

Through PR efforts, we found bottled water's Achilles heel: sustainability. Our idea was to send people a simple, yet powerful message... to jolt them out of their bottled water routine.

You can't blame a company for fighting its competitors, in this case bottled water. What's interesting is that sustainability was a means to compete, not an end.

Credit social media and the conversation between Brita and environmentalists for changing that dynamic Credit DDB SF for a great campaign. This makes a great case study on how green marketing can reward your intelligence a tell a story without clobbering you over the head, as well as how companies must interact with consumers and how they can win when they do.

Be sure to check out Brita's own campaign blog.

Comments

[Andrew]

Just wanted to point out that the Filter For Good campaign as well as the Web site and Facebook page were all created by Edelman.

[G.B. Veerman]

Thanks for the clarification. Big ups to the team at Edelman for the work + responding to the call for the recycling initiative. You just schooled a lot of companies on how to play in this space.

[David!]

Shows that even the environmentalist movement in America still thinks *someone else* is responsible to recycle, to conserve, to save, and to do environmentally friendly things. And not THEM...

-Start a recycling service for the water filters.
-Realize tap water is save to drink in America and drink it