Once just a small company with a negligible following, SodaStream has caused a resounding splash with its recent Super Bowl advertising debut. Following up on its earlier strategy of comparing its brand to soda giants like Coca Cola and Pepsi, which waste billions of plastic bottles every month, the Israeli company made a bold move by targeting the companies on one of their biggest selling days, an American institution, the Super Bowl.
Their advertising agency Pale Dot Voyage initially featured both Coke and Pepsi products in the original advertisement, but CBS, concerned to offend their advertisers, banned it. SodaStream was forced to submit an advertisement featuring generic products instead but the impact was still clearly felt. The central message? By using their carbonated machines instead of coke or pepsi, consumers can save 15 million plastic bottles on game day alone.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1HQxcTYTho[/youtube]
While Coke and Pepsi have been in the – ahem – game for a lot longer than SodaStream, they shouldn’t take their winning streak for granted since SodaStream has steadily increased its global reach.
When Coca Cola sued the Israeli company last year for using their product in cages to advance SodaStream’s popularity among eco-conscious consumers, fans across the globe stood behind the claim that the beverage giants ought to take responsibility for polluting the planet with their throwaway bottles.
If not economically, that often beligerent show of support must have dealt Coke and Pepsi executives a blow.
Formerly America’s favorite bone-melting, tooth-rotting beverage has begun to lose its psychological hold on the public as a new ethos – a sustainability ethos carefully crafted by SodaStream’s clever marketing team – gradually takes its place.
Which is not to say that SodaStream is entirely innocent given that it produces millions of plastic units per year, but their material footprint pales in comparison to Coke and Pepsi, which collectively sell approximately 14 billion bottles every month.
Most of those are likely to land up in a landfill, where they will languish for hundreds of years and lead noxious gases into water streams across the planet.
PSFK argues that CBS has no business censoring advertisements for political reasons, or if they must, they should at least offer full disclosure. But we are slightly more surprised to realize that SodaStream can afford advertising that costs $8 million per minute! That is $4,444.44 per frame, according to Forbes.
SodaStream has officially hit the big leagues, and we would wager a guess that Coke and Pepsi are trembling a bit in their boots.
::PFSK
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
