On April 22 we tip our hat to Mother Earth and all things eco-friendly as we celebrate Earth Day and. It’s no surprise that marketers see Earth Day as an opportunity to showcase their environmentally conscience side and raise their corporate profile. Here’s a look at how some corporations are getting into the spirit of things this year.
Jet Blue planting 83,000 trees
To honor each person flying Jet Blue on April 21, the airline will plant 83,000 trees in North and Northwest Haiti through August. The trees will help to rebuild areas damaged by the 2010 earthquake. In concert with the Jet Blue program, volunteers in New York will plant 100 trees in Long Island City, Queens. Read more about it here.
Target puts a bag on it
Target will celebrate Earth Day by giving out 1.5 million reusable shopping bags to customers. The bags feature the words, “Fill. Refill. Repeat” around the company’s bull’s eye logo.
In the lead-up to Earth Day, Target is also offering customers $50 in savings with coupons for a number of Earth-friendly products.
Origins offers trade-ins
Bring in an empty skin-care cosmetics bottle to any Origins store with this form on April 22 and get a free, full-size tube of Origins moisturizer. After all, you can’t save the planet with dry, chapped hands, can you?
The Mother Nature Network has a great list of other Earth Day freebies, offers and promotions from companies ranging from Whole Foods Market to Pottery Barn Kids.
Do Earth Day promotions make good marketing sense?
With the growing attention that gets focused on Earth Day, some feel that diverting marketing resources to the event is a misstep. The thought being that Earth Day used to be a platform for eco-conscience companies to differentiate themselves. However, with so many organizations jumping on the green band wagon, it’s become harder to stand out in the crowd.
“With everyone and their mother doing some kind of quasi-green messaging around Earth Day, you risk a truly environmentally responsible promotion, product or service getting lumped into consumer’s green fatigue and being consider green washing,”
Albe Zakes, global vice president of media relations for TerraCycle,
Amy Westervelt’s article on GreenBiz.com titled, Has Earth Day marketing jumped the shark? on GreenBiz.com offers some great perspective on that question. The takeaway being that marketers may be able to do a more effective job promoting their green initiatives by stepping away from Earth Day-related promotions and activities.
Until they do, however, I’ll be collecting free shopping bags and free moisturizer.
