Are Stella and Carling trying to win a prestigious Green Award?

Both Stella and Carling are currently running ethical marketing campaigns, I can only assume they are both desperately trying to win a prestigious Green Award because I can’t see either campaign winning over the average lager lout.

Stella ‘Recyclage DeLuxe’ campaign has images of the 60s (why?) and a statement that “our glass bottles are made from 75% recycled glass”. Carling have their 100% British barley campaign.

I admire both brands faith in the idea that the average drinker applies ethical values to their choice of beer but the bad news is they don’t. A recent conversation (research for the book) with an organic beer producer was honest, he believed no one bought his beer because of ethics, “They think organic means it tastes better, but they have no idea why.”

There are certain products and services that ethical values can really make a real difference to the sales proposition, and other that it won’t. And there are some ethical messages that are great when you discover them, like Carling’s British barley message, but don’t make great ad propositions.

My advice, stick to those traditional sales messages in TV ads and posters and deliver the ethical messages through more consumer engaging and convincing channels. Advertising is brash and untrustworthy, which is why in one US survey it was revealed that consumer trusted ads with green claims less than normal ads (and their trust in normal ads was just 17%).

In one of the surveys we carried out for the book (Ethical Marketing & the New Consumer) among shoppers, the number one ethical factor that shifts product is Fairtrade, but when it comes to green claims few consumers really believe brands who make them. With so many greenwash ads about who can blame them.

Hidden in the Stella campaign, and you have to dig deep, is a CSR campaign about hedge planting. Umm? Is that relevant? They are claiming that they are planting a tree for every eighteen 284ml packs purchased. Umm, that’s a lot of beer to drink to plant a tree. If you’re up with CSR you’ll know that planting trees went out several years ago as largely pointless and is now seen by cynical consumers as greenwash.  Offsetting is no longer acceptable ethics, it’s a bit like a mass murderer killing 5 people but making 6 women pregnant and claiming he’s one up on a life.

Of course the problem with talking publicly about your ethical values is that some journalist from the Guardian will pick holes in it. For example, the bigger issue this raises within green communities is the carbon footprint of delivering millions of tons of glass bottles by trucks, the water usage (a big topic at the moment), the glass making process and the whole issue of the social effects of alcohol. Then there’s the difference between 75% in the ad and 81% on the bottle, umm?

Many brands have discovered that when they try to use environmental claims in their ads (big ad agencies have no idea about ethical marketing – it’s a complicated area) it can easily backfire. And bad publicity is bad for a company’s reputation which is bad for the share price.

Carling are at least on safer ground, well home turf actually with their British barley message. Buying local (and British) does carry favor with consumers in the green grocers, but in the bar? I’m open to being convinced. However, once I visited the website (www.carlingbritishbarley.co.uk) I was seduced by the stories of British farmers, Jake, Josh, John and John. It all felt very Co-op and Waitrose, and it didn’t feel like spin either.

The question I ask is, who are these beer brands targeting?

It was one of my pool of 20 young creatives (average age 25, average beer consumption…best not say but probably average for their age) who first commented on the Stella ads. Though his words were “does anyone get those ads, I don’t.” He was meet by total agreement from the others followed by a quick change of subject to something more interesting, the football. As a generation they are more ethical than their previous one but when it comes to beer, it’s not about the  % of recycle glass but the % of alcohol. Sorry to be a messenger of bad news.

Stella have a history of producing some of the best ads of any beer, reassuringly expensive has been a classic strategy, but I can’t help feeling they are a bit at sea over what to say. Trying to make yourself look environmental is seriously misinformed, they’ve even paid Ben Fogle (a TV environmentalist) to support them (everyone has their price it seems). Someone in InBev seems to think you need to make environmental claims to sell beer. I’ve seen this happen many times, a company feels it needs to jump on the  green band wagon but doesn’t question the logic of it all.

However, my creatives (after a few bevies) have come up with a brilliant campaign idea to engage consumers. Simple and strong on brand it also incorporates consumer generated input (something some brands are desperately trying to do). And it doesn’t greenwash but I’m not giving it away in this blog.

If you are planning a green message ad campaign I suggest you buy a copy of Ethical Marketing & the New Consumer, at £10 from Amazon it’ll save ten thousand times that in wasted media budget. In it you’ll find everything you need to know about how not to end up greenwashing and how to select the right ethical message. Tools like the Ethical Sphere and the R&E line are essential tools to help you define your ethical marketing strategy and your KEVs (Key Ethical Values). Plus it’s an interesting read (very Seth Godin in style I’m told).

Now back to the Green Awards. Since these launched four years ago they have been growing year on year and the winners provide great case studies of how both big and small companies (and organisations) are creating genuine and convincing green and ethical marketing campaigns. Winners over the years have included many big brands like Honda, Nokia, O2, Sky, M&S, COI, Cadbury’s, Guardian, TfL, DEFRA Act on CO2 and Coca-Cola.

This year they have the usual group of expert judges (who won’t be taken in by greenwash claims) judging 16 categories. Winning a Green Award is not easy, competition is tough and the entry date is September 18th, so you need to get your zero carbon skates on.



www.greenawards.co.uk,

www.carlingbritishbarley.co.uk, http://www.stellaartois.com/hedgefund/,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ethical-Marketing-New-Consumer-Economy/dp/0470743026/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1233610197&sr=1-1

www.ecoethicalmarketing.info

Crazy People or just AdMad?

‘Porsche. It's a little too small to get laid in it, but you get laid the minute you get out of it!’ ‘Buy Volvos’. They’re boxy but they’re good.’ ‘Jaguar for men who’d like hand jobs from beautiful women they hardly know.’ Well they don’t write them like that anymore. These are just a few headlines from the only decent film ever made about advertising. Crazy People (1990), written by Good Morning Vietnam writer Mitch Markowitz and directed by Tony Bill (ads directed by Barry Young) is a great film and if you didn’t catch it on ITV3 recently I recommend you grab a copy on Amazon (or get your teen son to torrent it). Featuring Dudley Moore as a stressed out creative director Emery Leeson who decides he’s had enough of marketing spin and decides to write real honest ads (probably the first ethical marketing). ‘Forget Paris. French can be annoying. Come to Greece. We're nicer.’ For a movie, The Freak, he pens ‘It won't just scare you, it will f*** you up for life!’ This doesn't go down too well with the boss, Mr Drucker, his money grabbing boss. Emery is sent to a psychiatric hospital to 'recover' but soon bonds with the patients and turns the nuthouse into a creative department (not unlike most creative departments). Meanwhile, back at the office, Emery's work is accidentally sent to the printers. Suddenly New York is exposed to these real honest ads (one even featuring the word f***). His ads are a huge success, all the products sell out and everyone’s talking about this new style of ‘honest advertising’. Drucker suddenly wakes up to the fact that his CD isn’t nuts but a genius so tries to get him back while taking the glory for the ads. Of course Leeson get’s exploited and used. So fairly close to the real ad world then. The movie closes with a parody Sony commercial. In it a Sony executive claims the secret of the success of the Japanese in the electronics market is due to the fact that the Japanese are in general short. Therefore they are closer to the circuits while working, making them pay closer attention. The tagline of the commercial was ‘Sony - because Caucasians are just too damn tall.’ Almost as good as that other classic line, ‘From those wonderful people who gave you Pearl Harbour.’ See the Sony spoof ad on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93KrnZ0UJQk

Can advertising save democracy or will social networking win the vote?

The recent election of two BNP candidates, Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons to the European Parliament raises two frightening issues.

The idea that a party associated with racist and fascist policies should be representing Britain in Europe is of great concern to many and especially the Daily Mirror. Racism, in whatever form, is just not acceptable.

These two candidates are certainly not portrayed by the media s anything less than ***. Where ever you have an election you’ll find nutters (remember the Monster Raving Looney Party) and extremists. It’s the nature of a free country (free? - well that is something many will be debating at the next elections). But the real issue isn’t so much their extreme views, nothing new there, after all the BNP have been around for decades. No, the real issue is how did they manage to get in this time?

The sad fact is indifference. They won because turnout for the traditional political parties collapsed - both Griffin's and Brons' vote actually dropped from the number they received in the 2004 European Elections but even with fewer votes it got them in. (In the 92 general election, the BNP polled 1000 votes less than the Monster Raving Loony Party.) In effect, by note voted locals voted them in. So who else could get in? A chilling thought.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”. These are the words that appeared at the Holocaust exhibition at the Imperial War Museum. They serve to remind us that in politics indifference is more dangerous than passion.

I strongly recommend you watch V is for Vendetta. There’s a chilling but relevant warning in one scene when V takes over the emergency channels and delivers a speech about how we‘ve lost all our freedoms to a fascist party, “… and who is to blame? To find the answer we only have to look in the mirror.”

Could this happen in the next general election? Probably. Getting people to vote is not easy and having watched a very limp commercial 30 times on the dreadful NHS TV channel (something I had to suffer for 3 hours in A&E on Sunday night) it didn’t make me feel like voting. In fact less.

Maybe it’s a sign of the times that politicians would get more votes if they all went on Big Brother.

Politicians all have an eye on the internet and mobiles, though few have a clue about them. No doubt they are all talking about Twitter because it’s the fad of the moment.

But technology could change voting for good. If instead of postal votes we could all email, use a website or text our vote in I think we’d seeing a massive rise in voting. Of course then politicians would start to worry about who is now voting. Just look what happened when social networking was used several years ago in the Eurovision Song Contest to vote in a group of Finnish heavy rockers in fancy dress (the drummer was actually dressed as a dinosaur). Now I actually like Lordi’s Kiss influenced winning song Hard Rock Halleujah, but it ain’t exactly Eurovision.

The "Not in my name" campaign, run by Hope not Hate is a simple but effective idea. Sign the petition and upload a picture of yourself with not in my name written on something.

Could organisations like Hope not Hate could become powerful forces at the next elections? Very likely. The growth of community organisations are on the up, and I’m not just talking about online ones. In recessions we gather together, that old war time spirit.

The danger for politicians is that large groups of people can swing together, or be led. This was apparent when papers like The Sun urged its readers to vote Conservative many elections ago. In  a period of no strong leaders any leader with a strong view will get followers. Poeple like to be led.

So who are Hope not Hate (not to be confused with Create not Hate, Trevor Robinsons’ fantastic organisation). It was set up by the anti-racist group Searchlight and The Daily Mirror as an anti BNP group. It has an impressive collection of celebrity supporters from the Sugarbabes and Eddie Izzard to Alex Ferguson. Whereas traditional political parties seems disconnected from the people this organisation feels very connected, and on an emotional level.

There’s little doubt that the public has lost faith in politician. Just take the recent corruption scandals over expenses – sorry, that’s unfair, it wasn’t dishonesty but “an error of judgment.” The massive growth of bureaucracy, the loss of privacy, injustice and rising crime rates – all comments you’ll find on blogs, social networking sites and comments on news sites – has led to a disillusioned voter. Politicians seem more concerned with their PR than their public and seem to have the very opposite of the Midas touch – everything they touch turns to lead. Yet no one buys the spin or the numbers they use to prop it up. No one believes the politicians and that’s a very dangerous place to be. Even our councils have become profit driven and corrupt in values. That’s exactly the environment that opens the doors to extremists. One lesson history has taught us.

Political marketing must be at an all time low and it won’t save them at the next election – my advice, save your limited funds because the ads won’t change a thing. A number of years ago I attended a debate with Sir Tim Bell at the Houses of Commons on politics and advertising. Even Tim admitted that ads make little difference.

The biggest influence in the next election could come from groups like Hope not Hate, religious and community groups and even environmental groups, just look at the power and influence Greenpeace exerts. Then there’s the influence of charities like Action Aid (Who Pays? Campaign) to force change. If they are in tune with the common feeling they are in a powerful position to encourage their supporters to act, just as the newspapers use their readers.

There’s no doubt that we are seeing some dramatic changes in society and in the consumer. That we are entering one of the dullest and most ineffectual periods of British politics. The consumer has unlimited power, if they but knew it, and if it isn’t used then the bad guys will abuse it.

Maybe the bigger questions is, has the whole approach of party politics now reached an end and do we need a new type of social governance? One that is more honest, ethical and accountable to the people. It’s up to you, it’s your vote.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzaqfLmUUCQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzbxizbc0bQ&feature=related
http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/index.php/content/home-wk/
http://www.london-student.net/2009/05/26/hope-not-hate-misses-the-point/