Posted by: Maggie OKeefe

I’ve attended very few meetings in my young career in advertising where I haven’t repeatedly heard pleas for “increasing website traffic,” “getting more bums in seats,” “getting more click-thrus to our website,” “increasing sales and profits,” etc. Is everyone channelling Diddy these days?

So it’s refreshing when companies inject some social responsibility into their quest to connect people with their brands.

Whether it’s protecting the environment or encouraging people to get active, we’re all well versed in the dangers of our modern lifestyles. Not only are marketers taking note of this growing concern, they’re taking action.

Take, for example, Sun Chips. Recently Frito-Lay launched a compostable chip bag for their Sun Chips brand. It was a great branding choice for Frito-Lay since Sun Chips are regarded as more healthy and earth-friendly than their potato counterparts. Sure, not everyone will compost the bag, but isn’t it nice to have the option?

Then there’s Volkswagen’s The Fun Theory. The Fun Theory is simple: the easiest way to change someone’s behaviour for the better is to make that behaviour fun, like taking the stairs vs. taking the escalator. Most of us would choose the escalator because it’s the easier option. But what if the stairs were a piano? Who could resist breaking out our inner Josh Baskin/Tom Hanks and tickling the ivories with their feet? No one, that’s who.

So there you have it, two examples of big-time marketers with more than just dollar signs in their eyes.

I guess we’re not so bad after all, huh?

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One Response to “It ain’t always ‘bout the Benjamins, baby.”

1. Rebecca says:

   October 1, 2010 at 6:46 am

   I totally agree that it’s great when you see brands who understand the concept of social responsibility.

   There are even agencies who have made a nice niche of working with not-for-profit and sustainability clients; however, on the flipside, there’s nothing worse than a company that pays lip service, but doesn’t really take any significant steps to make real improvements to the way they do business.

   I’d actually point out the Sunchips compostable bag as an example of just that— Sunchips are made by Frito-Lay, a company that produces about a kajillion bags of chips every year. If they REALLY cared beyond mere optics ALL the chips they manufacture would be packaged in a more sustainable way, not just the ones with the hippy, we-love-the-planet brand personality.

   That said, I agree when you say that advertising isn’t all bad…At this point in our media-saturated culture, ads have incredible potential as an agent of change (good or bad) and I’d love to see more organizations harnessing that potential to make great things happen.