It’s one thing for a French energy company to hijack the Union Jack for greenwash purposes but to take the ad campaign (or something very much like it) of a genuine green electricity company, Ecotricity, has really inflamed green minded consumers.EDF’s sponsored Green Britain Day is taking place on Friday, July 10th and has been positioned as “a community aimed at harnessing the power of collective action”. Seems they have created another community aimed at harnessing the power of collective action - true greens are organisisng a boycott and calling it the EDF ‘Greenwash Britain Day’ and are urging politicians, musicians, sportsmen and the public not to be taken in and to 'unplug EDF'.Those in the green space have already started a campaign against EDF (Electricite de France), check out GREEN BRITAIN DAY group on Facebook, and are urging people to complain to the ASA about EDF’s claims.When I saw the posters, a green Union Jack, I was a bit shocked. The original green Union Jack ad was created by Robin Smith of Host Universal (a specialist ethical agency) for Dale Vince’s Ecotricity back in 2007 and is well known in green circles, though obvious not by creatives at EDF’s agency. Had Ecotricity given it to EDF or had EDF just nicked it? Seems the latter, though they’ll blame the agency I am sure. If so I’d ask for the fee back and maybe EDF would be ethical enough to pay it to Smith instead.Of course it’s not the first time EDF have recycled someone else’s idea. Their TV ad made from recycled ads was actually a copy of St Luke’s Ecover ad, which was ironically created by Smith’s wife Kiki Kendrick. Wow, that’s a double hit. So watch out everyone who has ever done any award winning eco-ethical ads, EDF may well be eyeing it up for the next campaign. Think I’ll copyright my environmental Asthma glue poster as fast as I can.The Green Britain Day involves many partners including the Eden Project and the legendary musician Paul Weller, who will be playing a gig there. In principle the idea is great, engaging people to make a difference, no one can argue with that. It’s the corporation’s motives behind it and it’s marketing that is causing concern.EDF claim to be the first sustainability partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Vincent de Rivaz, Chief Executive of EDF, said: “Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing us. As an energy company, EDF Energy has a responsibility to be at the heart of the solution to climate change….” Nice speech.EDF Energy also claim to be the largest producer of low-carbon electricity in the UK. Well of course they are because they are 85% Nuclear energy, hence their claims that by 2020 they plan to be totally carbon neutral (nuclear is carbon neutral). Nuclear has certainly split the green lobby, some back it others reject it. However, as it’s carbon neutral it’s been a gift for greenwash.EDF states the obvious, “Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing us and EDF Energy believes that we can only tackle the issues we face by ensuring that all of us act together now.” True but in the world of eco-ethical marketing do they you define acting together as taking other people’s ideas?EDF’s marketing to the British public is designed to make them think they are a company that has real green values, this has annoyed the green community. To support their sponsorship of the 1012 Olympic Games and Green Britain Day EDF have even set up a .org website (makes it look more caring) and are using the term ‘Team Great Britain’ – err, but EDF are French? Is this some kind of invasion? They even have added ‘the big idea’ to the URL, who ever said the French can be arrogant?To put you in the picture, there are only really three genuine green energy companies in the UK, Good Energy, Ecotricity and GreenEnergy UK (who have the greenest tariff of all of them). The next best is Scottish & Southern who operate a lot of hydro electric power stations. So if you want to be even slightly green there’s your choice. After that the rest are large corporations with one mission, make profit. And let us not forget British Gas, who despite making many green claims conveniently forgets that gas is as unsustainable as you can get. All the big energy companies are required by the government to supply a degree of green source energy and it is this small percentage that they are using to spin to try and make themselves look green. One energy company I have spoken with (one of the big boys) admitted to me that they found it really hard to sell a green tariff as consumers don’t trust them and if they had the choice they’d drop it. Big surprise.Now I’m all for embracing big corporates into changing the world, after all McDonalds, Starbucks and a few are making a significant difference, especially in the are of Fairtrade and ethically sourced coffee. Even Wal-Mart have turned over a new leaf. As for oil companies and energy companies… well they have a long way to go to convince the green minded consumer they have changed their ways.The big issue comes down to the triple bottom line – people, planet, profit. If Profit is at the heart of your ethos, and it is for energy companies, people and planet will always take a second place.The new guide for green marketers, Ethical Marketing & the New Consumer is published at the end of July by Wiley’s (pre orderable on Amazon) and I’d recommend that EDF and many others read it. It’ll enlighten them as to why they are wasting their money on their current greenwash campaigns and how they could become more ethical and actually spend their money more wisely.In the short term I’d advise them to consult the people they appropriate ideas off as they run one of the UK’s specialist ethical agencies (Host), as hiring an ethical specialists (instead of big agencies) would start to make people believe they are genuine.
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Rape, HIV and abuse of women are serious subjects. But ActionAid rather than try and shock us (unlike the Banardo’s approach) has found a very engaging way to raise awareness. Not through advertising but art. 2876 women around the world contract HIV every day. A girl in South Africa has a higher chance of being raped than of learning to read. Violence and rape against girls are a major factor in these women getting AIDS. 15 million women are already infected with the virus. The PUT YOUR FOOT DOWN campaign has been designed to put a stop to this alarming fact. So was the solution a shocking press ad? A distressing viral? Or a shock horror TV commercial? No, they turned to YCN and discovered Finish artist Ritta Ikonen. Ritta is an amazing artist and mind. I’ve known her for a number of years since she worked with us in one ad agency. Everyday she’d come in with a different name badge on. She carried a small box with micro models of figures in. Her work – a figure on an eyelash – was one featured on a series of Beck’s art themed bottles. I think she found the way we work rather odd. What is interesting working with people who don’t have the same background as most of us in advertising is they think different and think we all think the same. They probably have a point. I have an interesting mix of creatives in my department at the moment, a fashion designer, architect, product designer, illustrator and a film maker. Give them an ad brief and the outcome is challenging in the sense they challenge us. Personally I think all agency creative departments (we have over 20 people) should employ 20% non ad people. Just over a year ago I went to an exhibition at the RCA based around environmentalism. Ritta’s piece, The Last Snowflake, was a very thought provoking piece. Born out of the thought that one day, thanks to global warming, there’ll be no more snow. Many other pieces by other artists stimulated debate and discussion. What really made us think was the power of the art to communicate, far better than the formulaic ad method (picture and pun) we often adopt. We discussed the concept of ‘ideas’, a term used in the ad industry. “What’s the idea in any great art?” was one comment. “Art emotionally engages people, that’s why it works. Surely good ads emotionally engage people. The ‘idea’ is just an attempt to rationalise it.” You have to agree. This should lead us to question if now is the time to review our communications methods? Have we become too formulaic? The oddest brief I’ve recently been set was to redesign/decorate a piano for Boris Johnson’s London summer festival (for Sing London). After many hours of work our creatives produced the Soho themed piano – covered in black PVC and with a silver zipper made from piano hammers. It’s sexy and looks amazing and already it’s getting publicity. People love art. They like things that are different, imaginative and engaging. How many ads do that these days? ActionAid embracing art and Rtitta is a brave move but then they are one of the few charities that take risks and aren’t afraid to explore new ideas. Good on them. Thousands of people, besides signing the petition, sent Action Aid a real shoe. Ritta then used the shoes to capture the essence of the campaign and create a talking point. Each one displayed as part of a big installation told an individual’s story. Given that social networking is such a buzz word at the moment this campaign delivers against it big time. To see a charity use art to convey a serious message is different. Sure we’ve seen art projects before but not for serious messages that result in serious change.
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CHRIS ARNOLD
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