If you have an audience of 100 million people, don’t you think that should set the bar quite high in terms of what you show them, particularly if you’re paying in the region of $2.5 million for the privilege? Apparently Audi didn’t think so, when they approved the ad for the A3 TDI that aired during the Super Bowl a couple of weeks ago.



As cars go, the TDI has comparatively good green credentials, and particularly so in comparison to the cars driven by most Americans . So it’s not unreasonable that Audi would want to shout about it. But as a way of selling cars, the Green Police ad seems perverse and somewhat ambiguous. Is it gently making fun of the way in which we’ve become obsessed with environmental minutiae (our obsession with avoiding plastic carrier bags whilst thinking nothing of jetting off to Europe for a weekend break)? Or is trying to suggest that the green movement has become the thought police of the 21st century? Do I want to be with the Green Police, or against them? The eco-friendly universe portrayed by Audi is a pretty terrifying place – a libertarian’s worst nightmare, with every move monitored by a bunch of overweight cops. On the other hand, Audi’s website describes the green police as “a humorous group of individuals that have joined forces in an effort to collectively help guide consumers to make the right decision when it comes to the environment”.

There’s the germ of a really important idea there – that it’s possible to make environmentally conscious decisions without sacrificing style, beauty or fun. But the ad does a good job of making sustainability seem uncool, boring, irritating and an all round pain in the backside. Which surely can’t have been the intention…

PepsiCo's refreshing use of social media

This is my first ever blog entry which I’m pretty sure makes me social media Luddite! But although I don’t actively participate in social media I am very much interested in how it is used – increasingly so - by companies to engage with their consumers.

PepsiCo is arguably a leader in this area having integrated the medium holistically into their global marketing strategy - from the decision to launch the Pepsi Refresh Project in the US at the beginning of this year to the Dewmocracy initiative that crowdsourced the Mountain Dew line’s new flavors.

For the past year, the Pepsi brand has been using its "refresh everything" mantra to ask people about ways to change their world. But at the beginning of this year the brand decided to go further with the launch of the Pepsi Refresh Project - a grants scheme providing millions of dollars ($1.3 million every month) to fund good ideas that ‘make the world a better place’. But it isn’t a traditional grant scheme - consumers list their project ideas online and get to vote for the winners. And it uses social media to do this – relying heavily on Twitter, Facebook and a website to encourage submission of ideas and voting.

This initiative is being presented as Pepsi’s alternative to spending on television advertising at the US SuperBowl, which emphasises the increasing importance of social media to brands. The emphasis is shifting onto how a brand can figure out what its consumers’ value and how the brand can address that. It appears PepsiCo has moved the conversation it started with its consumers onto the next stage by actively helping them turn their ideas into action.

New generation of CR reports

Gone are the days of producing 300 page long CR Reports... Well no not quite but it is clear that companies are starting to look at different mediums for communicating their CR activities. Solar Century published its 2007-8 report in video format. It is not the most exciting video in the world and it is perhaps a little too long but it is an innovative way of delivering key messages to its stakeholders.