Levi’s is committed to making its jeans as ‘planet and people-friendly’ as possible by adopting water-saving and sustainable sourcing goals and tracking the life-cycle of jeans to see its environmental footprint—as it turned out, water use impact from growing cotton is the biggest (49%), followed by consumer use (45%). Following the launch of Water<Less jeans, the Levi Strauss company is releasing 2 million pairs of Levi’s and dENiZEN jeans containing sustainably farmed fiber, a blend of Better Cotton, which is grown under the Better Cotton Initiative in a way that is healthier to the environment and communities, and other fabrics.
Author: Anna Rudenko
Carbonated drink brands put male into focus this fall—a few weeks ago, Dr Pepper rolled out its Ten version for machos across the U.S., and now Pepsi MAX, another brand targeting male consumers, is stepping out with the new marketing activity revolving around male friendship. For the new digital campaign dubbed Top Mates, which has been launched on Facebook, the brand teamed up with advertising agency Clemenger BBDO Sydney. The promotion, which is supported by TV and radio elements across the country as reported by www.bandit.com.au, will be running for a month, but the brand is going to continue using this idea for further fan engagement.
Nearly two years ago Pepsi launched its groundbreaking initiative Pepsi Refresh Project to support emerging social projects with grants, ‘refreshing’ the world—the initiative, which was started in the U.S. has extended to Canada, Europe, Asia and Latin America in 2011. With this program, the brand deepens its social involvement greatly—with each of the ideas funded by it across the globe, the iconic carbonated drink is continuing to develop life-changing concepts that help impossible things happen. One of the latest projects sponsored by the brand is ‘The Sound of Football’ realized by Åkestam Holst and Society 46 to provide give visually impaired people with an opportunity to ‘see’ the game though sounds.
Greenpeace is known for taking bold and extravagant actions to protect environment and help jumpstart the conversation about ecological dangers, but this organization is not the only one to persuade people to take actions for the planet protection. Australian Red Cross has teamed up with Belgiovane Williams Mackay (BWM) Sydney and digital agency Pollen to launch a social campaign Target Nucler Weapons aiming primarily at younger generation—the aim of this initiative is to start conversation about the legitimacy of the use of nuclear weapon and get more supporters to raise awareness of the devastating consequences of this weapon of massive destruction and advocate for banning it.
A bunch of positive and negative things can happen within just one hour, one can get yet more in a single day—to say nothing about seven billion people living on the planet now. Vimeo, WWF, UN, Water.org, American Red Cross, The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and around 60 humanitarian organizations are supporting the One Day on Earth project, which is launched to showcase the life of people across the globe in 24 hours. Everyone is invited to contribute their voice to the project by sending in footage about how they and people around them live on 11.11.11. The registration is now running on the OneDayOnEarth.org website.
Malibu, the well-known rum which sees taste innovation, beach partying culture and creative collaborations as essence of its brand style, is about to launch a new product Malibu Red slated to arrive in the U.S. stores in March 2012. To promote the new addition to its portfolio, the iconic rum blended with tequila, Malibu has teamed up with popular R&B singer and songwriter, film and television actor, Ne-Yo. So far, the brand doesn’t unveil much detail on the creative collaboration, but the press release discloses that “the story of Malibu Red will unfold through exclusive music, performances, video and digital conversations.”
With Christmas arriving in less than two months, brands which are associated with this holiday most have a great opportunity to come on the forefront of promotional activity in winter. Beer is not likely to be the symbol of Christmas and doesn’t relate to it in any way, but Stella Artois does. The history of Anheuser-Busch InBev‘s lager brand roots deeply in this holiday (Stella means star in Latin, for the iconic Christmas star), and that’s why Stella Artois always have something in stock to surprise its fans for Christmas, from digital eco-cards to divine advertising. Just like Starbucks did in early 2011 celebrating Chinese New Year, Stella is releasing an exclusive eight-track holiday EP dubbed Under The Holiday Star to contribute to the festive spirit all across the globe.
As it turns out, 2011 is a year of milestone anniversaries for a number of global brands—Coca-Cola celebrated its 125th anniversary in May, Mercedes-Benz marked 125 years after the first automobile was invented, Starbucks turned 40 and Perrier-Jouët celebrated its 200th birthday with a glamorous edition. For Wrigley, the iconic chewing gum company, a subsidiary of Mars, this year is also very important—a century ago, on October 19, 1911 the genuinely American company, which was founded in Chicago in 1891, opened its office in London, selling its gum product in a chemists shop. Then, 100 years ago, its capital was just £2,000, and now it grew dramatically, since “more than 90% of the gum chewed by Britons is made by the company, says Mars Inc..
With the year 2012 coming soon (which may be the last one, according to Mayan predictions), brands get busy making divine calendars for it. Recently, Lavazza unveiled its 20th edition of its calendar, which turned to be a real splash of art and beauty. Another Italian brand Campari is keeping pace with the coffee brand and now launches the 13th calendar, announced in mid-summer. The new piece titled It’s the end of the world, baby! features Hollywood A-lister and supermodel Milla Jovovich, who inspires people to toast the life in any dramatic situations—in the long run, she also may save the world if the old prophecies turn out to be true.