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As greenwashing becomes riskier, consumers turn savvier, and climate change accelerates, brand messaging around Earth Day is shifting.
Rather than simply turning a logo green or tossing a one-off donation toward an environmental charity, some brands are taking it a step further—demonstrating sustainable practices through educational campaigns and spearheading advocacy efforts.
It’s all happening amid a shift toward more positive, solutions-focused climate messaging instead of doom and gloom. Fear of greenwashing is fueling a greenhushing trend, and at the same time inflationary pressures are squeezing budgets and pocketbooks, leading brands to prioritize cost savings over eco-benefits in messaging.
The beginning of 2023 saw a 47% drop in sustainability-related marketing messages, according to AI-supported data platform CreativeX, following steady growth between 2020 and 2022. Just 4% of ads over the last three years include sustainability messages, a new report showed.
What’s left, though, highlights some interesting trends toward more accountability, more advocacy and more optimism. Three campaigns from organic rice company Lundberg Family Farms, Greta Thunberg’s Fridays For Future and footwear brand Rothy’s demonstrate how sustainability marketing trends are playing out this Earth Day.
Less fire, more AI
Fridays For Future, the climate advocacy organization led by activist Greta Thunberg, has made its mark in the marketing world by creating some of the most visceral and devastating climate change ads. “Our House Is on Fire,” from 2020, depicted an eery and surreal scene: A family calmly gets ready for the day, brushing teeth, eating breakfast, etc., while the house burns and smolders around them.
The group has also created travel posters showing how climate change will impact famous destinations in countries like Italy, Australia and Switzerland, and a chilling spot demonstrating what wildfires—predicted to worsen as the climate warms—are doing to California.
In contrast, this year’s campaign drops the climate horror in favor of zeroing in on the people with the most sway when it comes to climate policy. With the help of AI, Fridays For Future and agency Fred & Farid created portraits of 20 world leaders as children, each holding the earth in their hands like a toy.