25 to inspire

Stumbled upon this article, 25 Advertising Campaigns That Inspire Social Good.

– Nike‘s Bottle T-shirt. The jerseys were woven from yarn made from melting 13 million plastic water bottles. This was effort done was done by Nike to reduce pollution worldwide and to market themselves as a “clean” brand. The collection of water bottles gathered from Taiwan and Japan weighed close to 560,000 pounds.

– Ben & Jerry’s Hubby Hubby. In efforts to show their support for marriage equality, Ben & Jerry’s changed the name of their Chubby Hubby ice cream to Hubby Hubby for one month. This campaign featured copy saying, “Vermont is for lovers… & for lovers of marriage equality” for Vermont’s recently-passed same-sex marriage law.

– McDonald’s Fresh Salads billboards. The campaign features billboards with a garden constructed on the top in the greater Chicago area featuring 15 different types of lettuce that grew over a three week period to spell “Fresh Salads.” Great job Leo Burnett.

Many of these campaigns were not as light & cheery as the ones above. Some causes featured were falling asleep behind the wheel, date rape, the negative side effects of cigarette smoking, and more. They are all great campaigns, I highly suggest you check them out.

Green Brands in 60s + 70s

A History of Green Brands 1960s and 1970s- Doing the Groundwork. Fast Company. 

Today you can find an eco-friendly alternative in every category, but in the 1960s & 70s, you couldn’t. Today more and more products aimed at being more “environmentally friendly” are introduced every year.

An article written by Russ Meyer featured on Fast Company describes the 1960s as “The Awakening” for green brands and sustainability practices. The pesticide DDT was still on vegetables and lead was still in paint. Two books, Silent Spring and Unsafe at Any Speed, were said to be two books that ignited social and political change that was seen in the 1970s.

The 1970s, in the article, was referred to as “The Response” due  to the passing of three important acts: Safe Water Drinking Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act. Natural products flourished and brands like Tom’s of Maine did exceptionally well due to their marketing of their phosphate-free laundry detergent. Brands like General Mills, Kellogg’s, Quaker Oats, and Grape Nuts were endorsing their products as healthy alternatives.

These two decades were said to be when the “seeds of consumer interest in sustainability was first sown.”

More on green brands: Best Global Green Brands, Interbrand. (Top 50)

The Greenwashing Index

The Greenwashing Index is a place online where you can view and rate ads carrying messages about the environment based on how offensive or authentic their messaging is. Greenwashing means the ad is misleading in regards to its environmental messaging. Greenwashing exaggerates the benefits or unsupported claims in support of the environment, in advertising and other persuasive communications. The term ‘greenwashing’ was coined by environmentalist Jay Westervelt. Put together by EnviroMedia + collaborators, The Greenwashing Index is an online conversation, not simply just a place to come and say this is ‘good’ and this is ‘bad.’

 

Strange Names, Strange Origins.

I’ve wondered a few times how some agencies got their names, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Advertising agencies aren’t known for their tame or explanatory names. The names of these places are typically mashups of silly verbs & adjectives mixed together. Or so it seems. I love advertising agency names, and there are some really great ones out there. I was intrigued when I stumbled upon this article from adweek: 40 Strangest Agency Names, and Where They Came From  |  Adweek

#40. Taxi: They believe that their team of experts should remain small, about the number of people that can fit into a taxi.

#36. Droga5: Reportedly named for the label that founder David Droga’s mother would stitch into his underwear when he was a child, to clarify which Droga sibling it belonged to. (Easily my favorite.)

#32. Wikreate: According to their website, this San Francisco agency is built off of the “wiki” model, or the platform that collaboration occurs with field experts and associates, as well as agency team members.

#28. High Heels & Bananas: Founders of this agency wanted the name to be fun and sophisticated. Bananas are fun and high heels are sophisticated.

#23. The Glue Society: Agency refused to give explanation on origin of agency name. Interesting.

#20. Elephants & Ants: The name illustrates the company’s willingness to work with any client, big or little.

#18. David & Goliath: The agency founder David Angelo is the David in the agency’s name. The biblical story is the agency’s ethos, and they bravely take on challenges others walk away from.

#5. Kids Love Jetlag: The name of this Paris-based agency is meant to inspire/evoke youthfulness, giddiness, and travel.

#3 StrawberryFrog: The name was chosen to make the agency the antithesis of “agency dinosaurs” often found on Madison Avenue. They describe themselves as “a radical with blue jeans.”

Why pro bono matters

The Think Tank (T3) recently added a post to their blog concerning pro bono work. In a post titled, “Why pro bono work matters,”  Rick Doerr says that while pro bono work does not pay the bills, there are still invaluable rewards that come from it.

Doerr says that pro bono work yields the best results when you and the agency backing you can say that you are believers in the cause you are backing. For T3, Fallen Heroes was something close to their hearts. Another aspect to look at when contemplating pro bono work is creativity. “Implied in pro bono work, says Doerr, “is a degree of creative freedom you may not enjoy on everyday client work.” He says that, “One Fallen Heroes client remarked, ‘You will love us as a client, because we’ll let you do anything.’ I think that sums it up.” Doerr says this situation is a win-win. It allows for experimentation that can “unveil possibilities for future client work.”

Doerr says that pro bono work can be a time to shine, an opportunity to take creative risks & develop new leaders, and it is a chance for the agency to self-define based off of supporting causes or organizations. And, there are even special awards categories for pro bono work, such as the Cannes “Grand Prix For Good” award.

Keep reading.

Eugene Emeralds

One of my favorite pastimes these past two summers in Eugene has been going to Eugene Emeralds baseball games. They recently went through a rebranding and revealed the results yesterday at Ninkasi Brewing. The Emeralds hired Brandiose in San Diego to do the rebranding, and I think the new logos, etc. look great. Check out a promo video & new logos. The new logos include Sasquatch, but the mascot will still be Sluggo; however, throughout the season, I have heard that there will be Sasquatch sightings. Pretty cool.

Related articles:

Eugene Emeralds Find Bigfoot In New Team Logos

Daily Emerald

The World Is…

…obsessed with Facebook.

27. Ira Glass

I have been interested in Ira Glass lately. I saw a cool video a day or two ago on vimeo, and now I am searching for more. Found these videos on Ira Glass talking about storytelling; worth your time. Most of the information is related to broadcasting and creative writing, but there are takeaways here for everybody.

On finding great stories…

On making the errors all beginners make…

-“Kill it. It’s time to kill. By killing, you will make something better live. Abandon crap.”

-“You are better off the more like yourself you are.”

-“It’s important to understand the building block of the stories, and there are different ways to think about this. One of the things you don’t want to do is you don’t want to think about it the way you learned it in high school. In high school, the way that we’re taught to write is that there’s a topic sentence and then the facts. In broadcasting, it’s completely different.”

-“The anecdote. A sequence of actions. That’s a story in its purest form.”

-“Often times, it takes longer to find a good story, than to write that story.”

26. Drink Like A Bartender

NPR did an interesting article on bartenders and the hidden meaning of last calls. NPR says that for people that go to bars, last call means it’s your last chance to re-up on “citrusy, sugary drinks that can all taste alike” before belting out a classic rock ballad. But for bartenders, it means not long before they make a drink for themselves.

A Bartender’s Antidote… written by Bill Chappell, explores the world of alcohol in a new way, and divulges on what bartenders drink themselves.

For bartenders, the words “last call” have a hidden meaning: It won’t be long before they’re enjoying a drink of their own. And after hours of making tonics, flips and fizzes, what does a bartender drink? Often, the answer is short and simple: Fernet.

In a world of citrusy, sugary drinks that can all taste alike, Fernet Branca stands alone. Depending on how your palate responds, the Italian digestif can be called everything from refreshingly bold to an acquired taste to cough syrup that’s gone bad.

“People in the industry tend to drink bitter spirits a lot,” says Alexandra Bookless, bartender in the Washington D.C. area. She claims she does not know why, but puts forth that it may be due to the fact that maybe the late-night bitter drinks “works for their palate” after tasting drinks or bites of food during the day. According to The Atlantic, San Francisco has “been on the Fernet bandwagon for years” and “has long had the greatest demand in the U.S., accounting for about a 25 percent of sales” (NPR). Fernet is like a secret handshake in the world of bar tending. Interesting read if you are interested in this topic. I have always wondered what bartenders drink/their take on drinks.

Bookless, at The Passenger Bar in Washington, D.C.
photo source: NPR.

25. UP

Geekologie has become one of my new favorite websites. I found it stumbling one night. Geekologie picked up a story about somebody re-creating the UP balloon house. This isn’t the first time that somebody has tried to recreate this scene from UP, but according to Geekologie, it is the first attempt with a human passenger aboard. Check out the full article here.

photo source: Geekologie.

Passenger Jonathan Trappe was aboard the house carried by balloons, and fortunately he is “cluster-balloonist.” Trappe admits to never watching the movie UP because he heard it was sad, and he does not like sad movies. Here are some more shots. This is not a conventional life, folks.

photo source: Geekologie.

photo source: Geekologie.

photo source: Geekologie.