Founded in 2008, ecopop is an idea farm that
lives at the intersection of ecology and pop
culture. We create, market, advise, and co-own
brands that make a positive global impact.
This is a reading of the 5-minute slide presentation I gave at the SHIFT 7 event on 11/17/11, an event to inform, inspire and engage peers, clients and students about sustainable design thinking and practices. It’s basically the follow up to one of our earlier posts. Let’s keep the discussion going.
We heart Land in Portland, Oregon not only for carrying some of our limited edition prints in their super rad retail store/gallery and online at Buy Olympia but also because they turn us on to so many great artists.
“Think of your favorite peanut butter cup. Next, magnify that feeling by a gazillion – that’s ours. Nuts? Yes. Crazy? No. Just imagine when I take the best tasting organic peanut butter in the world and delicately place it into the high quality organic and fair-trade chocolate available. Yup. Peanut Butter Cup Perfection!”
The copywriter pretty much nailed it when he wrote the description on the home-compostable package of Justin’s Organic Peanut Butter Cups. Sure, we’ve tried other natural peanut butter cups before and they just didn’t compare to the mainstream favorite, which is what we also imagine everyone does. Calling out this human truth like the copywriter did so well makes us feel like Justin’s really understands us and our quest for healthier yet sadly limited alternatives. But this isn’t all that Justin’s “gets”. In fact, Justin’s manages to successfully compete with, and beat, the candy giant on so many levels, making it our new favorite ecopop brand, or brand that successfully mergers ecology with pop culture.
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Depending on how you look at it, dabball is an artfully addictive game that allows players to purchase featured art directly from their iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Or, it’s the world’s first digital art gallery that sells museum-quality artist prints by way of art-inspired dexterity games.
If you like to dabble in art, design, and mobile gaming, you’ll surely want to get your hands on dabball, the free app that is available in iTunes now.
At its heart, dabball is a mobile art gallery that showcases up-and-coming and world-renowned artists, including Portland’s Brooke Weeber, and former Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard, and invites you to browse the art digitally as well as purchase museum-quality artist prints for your wall, in one of three sizes, directly from your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.
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Like many of you, we were raised to say “Please” and “No, thank you”. Lately, however, we’ve found ourself in a few situations where saying “No, thank you” not only seems dismissive or inappropriate but also like a missed opportunity. Take flying, for example. On a recent business trip, we were once again reminded of just how wasteful the airlines are with, among other things, their napkins. It doesn’t really matter if you’re going to order a drink, accept the free peanuts or not. Flight attendants are programmed to automatically hand everyone a napkin. The next time they come down the aisle, we’re supposed to hand back that perfectly good napkin and plastic cup so they can throw it away and hand us all fresh ones. Most people don’t think twice about this senseless act of waste while others refuse by politely saying “No, thank you”. But why are we thanking them? Thanks for what? For allowing us to take responsibility for their actions? Do they even have a clue? It got us thinking. Is there a a quick, polite response to let flight attendants and other passengers know why were refusing the napkins? We came up with ”No, that’s unnecessary.” Granted, it may not be perfect but, since we’ve been using the phrase in similar situations, it’s been getting our point of view across while not coming across like a complete ecodick. Try it sometime.
Segregation is alive and well in the media and in the grocery store.
There are websites, magazines, TV shows, and even TV channels devoted to the eco lifestyle. And there are mainstream media outlets that devote special columns, issues, episodes, and entire weeks to green themes.
Similarly, there are retail stores that specialize in sustainable goods and there are others that might have a small section. In the grocery store, for example, green brands are often quarantined to the heath food aisle, or a specialty store altogether.
If you ask us, this is not the most efficient way to change the way people make and buy things. Instead all brands and branded content, ecological and not, must live side-by-side in order for consumers to compare and businesses to compete. And let’s not forget the importance of discovery and the element of surprise.
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Americans throw away 4.5 pounds of trash a day yet it doesn’t seem to bother anyone, partly because they don’t see the problem. It’s just another empty statistic.
Ever since the 70’s, when we saw that TV commercial with that Native American crying over all the litter we created, we’ve been a lot better at keeping America beautiful. We’ve become used to people picking up after us when we don’t pick up after ourselves. Everyone puts their waste in a trash receptacle, the garbage truck comes along and whisks it all off to a so-called bottomless pit, and then the problem is solved. Trash only becomes a problem when we have to look at it, smell it, or compete with those nasty little creatures that feast on it. After all, out of site, out of mind, right?
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Nobody owns anything. We simply rent it before it goes into a landfill.
When you buy or accept something for free, that item becomes your responsibility for the life of that product. Unfortunately, most of the products we buy, because of how they are made and how they are packaged, have a destructive afterlife that can live well past our grandchildren’s grandchildren.
While some countries are trying to force manufacturers to take back, recycle or dispose of their “expired” goods, the responsibility has largely been placed on the customer. After all, we bought it. It’s ours now. It’s not their problem anymore, right?
Some of us choose to throw out our goods long before their time is due. Others save, reuse, donate, resell, or recycle. Like a hot potato, once an item is out of our hands, it’s no longer our problem either. The responsibility simply gets paid forward. You can choose to accept this responsibility or you can be part of the solution.
Many of us have become concerned with what is in our products and less concerned about where they’ve been, how they got there, and where they’re going, which are also important sustainability questions.
As one solution, we’d like one of you brainiacs to come up with a tracking system whereby anyone can track the life of a single product. Every item that is produced would get a unique code that can be tracked from an online database. Sorta like you can with U.S. paper money via Where’s George? or The Canadian Money Tracker.
How cool would it be if you could learn where a product was born, where it traveled to, and who possessed it before you and after you? Not only could we gain insight into things like where the product was made, what might contribute to its carbon footprint – i.e. distanced traveled, but we could also see, in real-time, a product’s average lifespan as well as connect to a network of people who are collectively accountable for the life and death of that product.
Dooo it.
As an advertiser, we’re constantly looking for new ways to reach consumers in a responsible way. Like many green marketers, we imagine this to be a reoccurring challenge: How does one promote themselves without leaving an ecological footprint on the planet?
Some constructive brands choose to advertise in magazines and on billboards and use other destructive media. Others have chosen to stop creating traditional marketing materials all together and put more effort into things like word-of-mouth, PR, or electronic formats. Then there are those who split the fence, using a combination of materials like recycled paper, even though these also take up additional resources as well as contain toxic remnants.
What you chose to do is your own personal choice. And, while some options are arguably better than others, everyone is still trying to figure this green thing out. We feel you.
We’ve collected a few innovative examples that will hopefully inspire you to think of more relevant solutions to your own communication objectives. Enjoy.
