Category — Socially Conscious Advertising

Honest Tea is launching a new initiative, The Great Recycle, today with an event in Times Square seeking to recycle the same number of bottles they sell in NYC in a day.  The program differentiates itself with its simplicity and clear goals. As their website describes: “At Honest Tea, we like to say that nature got it right, we put it in a bottle. That’s why we’re launching The Great Recycle, a national call-to-action to boost recycling rates. Our goal: to recycle the same number of bottles we produce each year by 2020.”

Their social media component encouraging people to evidence their pledge to recycle by recycling an old facebook status seems like a bit of a stretch but I have to admit their recycled status from 2009 is pretty great: “If we don’t change the direction we’re headed, we’ll end up where we are going.” – Chinese Proverb.

Jean Kilbourne opens her presentation below with a very simple statement on the power of advertising: “Ads sell more than products. They sell values, they sell images, they sell concepts of love and sexuality, of success. And perhaps most important, of normalcy. To a great extent they tell us who we are and who we should be.”

Jean’s presentation focuses on the very real impacts this industry has had on women: their role in society and sense of self worth. Its an impact that extends well beyond just this vertical, seeping into almost every area of our lives if we let it. It’s a power that if leveraged, has the potential to effect tremendous amounts of positive change. It’s a power that fuels my belief in the ability of advertising to be a force for good. It’s a power that, even in a time of awakened, empowered individuals, wields more influence than many like to admit.

So, what if this power was used with a vision on the long term? With an understanding that differentiating your brand in a crowded marketplace with honest, impactful and straightforward communication has the power to forge strong bonds of loyalty with your customers? That’s what Socially Conscious Advertising is. Being aware of the impacts your advertising and corporate messaging has on the social landscape, and choosing those impacts wisely.

Envision’s 2012 conference “Stories for a Sustainable Future” will stream live online tomorrow from 9:30am – 6:00pm at www.envisionfilm.org. Envision, “addressing global issues through documentaries” is a great collaboration between the UN, IFP and Ford Foundation. 2012 looks to be another great lineup – definitely worth checking out if you can’t be there in person. There’s a full program on their site here.

I’m particularly looking forward to the first session, The Promise of Cities featuring THE LAST TRAIN HOME and the lunch-time session, Sustainability and the Corporate Citizen with Jason Clay from the World Wildlife Fund. Enjoy!

It seems companies everywhere are launching Open Innovation Platforms. Unilever launched theirs last month and Heineken launched Ideas Brewery a few days ago, inviting ideas to make packaging and delivery more sustainable. Not that I’m complaining, the fact that companies are thinking about reducing their environmental impact is a great thing. It’s just that for something all about innovation the model itself feels a little 2008. Basically crowd-sourcing mixed with user-generated content.

But, I’ve been wrong before and the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. So I’ll be curious to see what ideas come out of this. Submission deadline is May 8th and the winner will be announced in June 2012. $10,000 cash prize.

And though I really do want to love this campaign because I admire the sentiments behind it, the intro video on Ideas Brewery definitely isn’t helping me get excited about it. Great message, mind-numbing delivery. Maybe it’s the remaining effects of all those dirty kettle one martinis last night but my mind is still spinning from this closing quote: “Because none of us is better than all of us.” Huh? I’m tempted to send them a copy of Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

Happy Good Friday everyone!

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Well, you can tell I’m on a theme of recycling and limiting our environmental footprint with Earth Day coming up April 22. Absolutely loving the work Glad is doing around their “Waste Less” campaign. Helping make it easier for tailgaters to recycle, producing and promoting bags that hold more with less plastic, and helping fund great initiatives like this composting program right here in NYC. Refreshing to see a brand fully embracing the power of socially conscious advertising – it may seem counter-intuitive to old-school marketers to create a product and actually encourage people to use less of it, but they are seeing the long game and I have no doubt it will positively affect their sales, not to mention the world we live in.