How Brands Around the Globe Are Commemorating Earth Day
Apple, The New York Times and more are honoring Mother Earth
Monday is the most environmentally friendly day of the year—it’s Earth Day, the holiday dedicated to honoring our planet and pushing for people to take better care of it. And with talk around climate change and a Green New Deal hitting a fever pitch, this year’s Earth Day is sure to resonate more than ever.
As you might expect, brands are commemorating Earth Day with campaigns, activations, new initiatives, heartwarming ads and other stunts.
Adweek rounded up a few of the most notable Earth Day creations from brands below.
Ocean Spray
The juice brand, famous for its commercials set on a cranberry farm, is making a commitment to those cranberry farmers on Earth Day. Ocean Spray announced this week that by 2020, its cranberries will be 100% sustainably grown. The decision will impact all 700 family farms that are a part of the Ocean Spray cranberry cooperative, making it the first fruit cooperative in North America to commit to completely sustainable growing.
“At Ocean Spray, we don’t believe that impact is a part of our business, we believe that impact is our business,” said Christina Ferzli, head of global corporate affairs at Ocean Spray in a statement. “We are proud of our family farmers who sustainably grow our superfruit, and we are committed to creating regenerative, healthy food with transparency for our consumers.”
New York Times and Everlane
The Gray Lady and Everlane, the direct-to-consumer clothing company that promotes “radical transparency,” teamed up for a collection of T-shirts and sweatshirts that promote the importance of climate change journalism. The Climate Collection has five items, which all feature the tagline “Truth. It affects us all.” Michael Preysman, founder and CEO of Everlane, said that the collaboration “felt like [a] natural extension of bringing both their work and our product together to customers to educate and inspire.”
Michelob Ultra Pure Gold
Sick of ads? Michelob gets you. In honor of Earth Day, Michelob Ultra Pure Gold its launching its own “ad blocker” to remove unsightly banner ads and replace them with photos of nature. It’s a nod to Michelob’s recent campaigns featuring beautiful scenic images, like its Super Bowl spot with Zoe Kravitz and its SXSW activation, the Big Quiet. People can download the Michelob Ultra Pure Gold ad blocker from the Google Chrome store.
Busch
Tree hugging must be an active passion over at the Busch offices—the brand loves trees so much it’s releasing a hardcover coffee table book all about them. Called Rooted In Love, the book is lined with pages made from FSC Certified recycled paper. It’s on sale from April 18 to 30, and retails for $20. All the proceeds will be donated directly to the National Forest Foundation—an ongoing Busch partner since 2018.
The North Face
The North Face’s products are all about outfitting yourself for adventuring in the great outdoors, so it’s natural that the company would take a big stand on Earth Day. This year, it’s doing just that by launching a global effort to get Earth Day labeled as a national holiday. Aside from launching a Change.org petition to achieve that goal, the outerwear company is partnering with influential figures like singer and songwriter Ella Mai and model Gabrielle Richardson to host earth exploration-themed activations across New York City.
ThredUp
ThredUp, an online consignment store, teamed up with actress Olivia Wilde and her company Conscious Commerce to create a capsule collection for Earth Day. The hope is that the collection—which has over 4,000 secondhand items and eight original pieces—will help shine light on the damage fast fashion causes to the environment.
“As a culture, we’re buying more and discarding clothes faster than ever before, depleting natural resources and clogging landfills,” said Jenna Bray, head of brand at ThredUp, in a statement. “The best thing we can do is consume less and reuse more. Now more than ever, consumers are waking up to fashion waste and want to make smarter choices for their wallets and the planet.”
The proceeds from the sales of the collection will go to a sustainable cause.
Saalt
Saalt, a new menstrual cup brand, is launching in Target stores this month. In honor of Earth Day, the brand is hosting an activation in Venice Beach, Calif., along with launching new influencer campaigns. The activation will place a whopping 11,000 plastic tampon applicators in the sand of Venice Beach, showcasing how much plastic a woman may use in her lifetime, which could be avoided with the use of a menstrual cup. The hope is that it will “encourage onlookers to evaluate how small changes in their life can make a big impact on the earth,” according to a statement.
