Chevy, gas-friendly to gas-freeMarch 27, 2008 12:49 PM PDT
Trumpeting a move to put the sun in SunChips
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One way green campaigns seek to avoid seeming too morally pure is to take a humorous tongue-in-cheek tack, and elements of the SunChips campaign follow that approach.
For example, the billboards are to be built so the letters spelling out the brand name are attached above the signs upside down and backward. When the sun comes out, the name will appear, cast in shadow across the top of the signs.
And advertisements scheduled to run in newspapers are being billed as "solar powered." The jest involves Frito-Lay's buying both sides of a page in each newspaper and printing the type backward on the back side of the page. The front side will carry this note: "Take this page and hold it up to the sun." When the readers do so, the type will be visible through the page.
"People think they have to make massive changes to affect anything," said Barry Quinn, creative director at Juniper Park. "We're giving them the opportunity to make small steps."
"A tiny little step may lead to more small steps," he added, "and more small steps may lead to something."
The SunChips Web site and the product packages also discuss what are called small steps being taken by Frito-Lay to address environmental and diet issues.
"It's not like I'm eating an apple," Quinn said of snacking on SunChips. "We're not pretending to be a bowl of oatmeal."
But when consumers choose to snack, SunChips offer "something better" than other options, he added, based on the 18 grams of whole grains--and 0 grams of trans fat--in each 1-ounce serving.
As for the environmental aspects of the campaign, "we're not claiming to be eco-warriors," Quinn said, but "it's not like greenwashing" because the Frito-Lay plant is "really using solar power to make the chips."
Jones said Frito-Lay intended to add solar power to as many of the SunChips plants as it could. But clearly, the Modesto plant in sunny California lends itself to solar power more than, say, the plant in Aberdeen, Md.
A Frito-Lay plant in Casa Grande, Ariz., is getting at least 50 acres of solar collectors to make snacks using solar power, but production of SunChips at that site has not started yet.
Frito-Lay has considerably increased its spending on ads for SunChips in major media, according to TNS Media Intelligence, a research service owned by Taylor Nelson Sofres. Spending last year totaled almost $10.8 million, according to TNS data, compared with $18,000 in 2006.
As for the sun being the only heavenly body to be noticed by Madison Avenue, one marketer is zigging when the others zag.
A humorous campaign for Rolling Rock beer by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, also part of Omnicom, is all about "moonvertising"--imaginary attempts by Rolling Rock, owned by Anheuser-Busch, to beam its logo onto the moon's surface when the moon is full each month.
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