Spent the last month working with Joe Bartmann, a great new friend in the green cause out here on the prairie, to kick-off South Dakota's first-ever Green Drinks. The hoedown is set for 4:30 pm this Friday, March 20 — the first day of spring — at Latitude 44.
It will be interesting to see how many eco-minions we can draw out, not only from business people, but city leaders, academics and regular folks interested in sustainable living. J
It's sexy. It's organic. It's even kosher. And even though 900 Minnesotan farmers make it in a cooperative effort, this is one yuppie libation. Okay maybe not yuppie — but the brand certainly targets an up-market demo.
(Note to ethanol critics: see, corn spirits really are good for the planet!)
We have a special love for Prairie, not only because it is made with organic corn grown and distilled in our backyard, but because it is far and away the coolest brand of the bunch. Props to Minneapolis's Olson for its deliciously refreshing work, with a slightly pear nose and pop-rock finish.
But at $25 retail and $68 delivered, could this be another brand that reinforces some of the problems with green marketing — too expensive, too out of reach for ordinary consumers, a great idea but not practical for the average lush?
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.
From an environmental/socially responsible marketing standpoint the Tap Project is a no brainer: when you eat out, you dole out the price of bottled water (or at least a buck) in exchange for a glass of normally free tap water. The restaurant then donates the dough to a UNICEF program that delivers clean drinking water to communities around the world where safe water is scarce. The program kicked off in NYC last year and garnered the support of some 300 restaurants.
From a design/brand standpoint, Tap delights with logos/identities unique to each of the 13 cities with participating restaurants this year. Some of the most respected names in advertising are contributing to the campaign (WK, Crispin). Here's a great spot from the Boston chapter that says all you need to know — about Tap, but also about producing great work that both defies green clichés and big budgets.
What I love about this spot is that it cost — or should have cost — next to nothing to make. With minimal visuals and maximal audio, it's positively Hitchcockian. Best of all, it stays true to the premise of the tap project: let's spend the money to get clean drinking water to those who need it, not to pay for a high-ticket film/video shoot.
Via Ernie Schenck, whose agency Hill Holliday produced the spot. Kudos, kids.
The spot is perfection: the concept, the performance, the art direction. And it actually managed to get me interested in what truly is a bizarre concept. YouTube tells me this has been airing almost a year; I guess I like my TiVo too much to catch every gem like this.
My question is this: why can't green brands embrace humor like this? Don't we take ourselves just a bit too seriously? And to the extent this ad is aimed at young 20-something males, isn't that a demo that's going to make all the difference in the environmental agenda? At the end of the day, green marketers will a do themselves a favor by breaking out of their comfort zone.
The creative team selling a pizza made of crushed Oreos got way out of the box here. Shouldn't you, too?
It Grows on Trees is about advertising and marketing green. Find policy and activist chat somewhere else. This is where we get down and dirty on brand maneuvers to communicate green in a noisy marketplace. The object is simple: make sustainability mainstream and grow business.
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