Published on
August 21, 2024
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Welcome to the Breakdown, a weekly roundup of the best real-life marketing examples, created for marketers and agency folk that want to create work that actually works.
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In this Breakdown, we're looking at ✨ social good ✨ - when brands try to do good business by doing good - or when the organisation itself does good.
Malibu take on a little-known issue and it’s really quite funny.
Apparently 1 in 4 drownings in the UK involve alcohol. That’s an odd statistic - it both makes total sense, and feels awfully high.
Anyway - to combat this issue, rum-brand Malibu teamed up with diver Tom Daley for their campaign “Don’t drink and dive.”
I 100% believe that line came well before the team found the statistic.
In the TV spot, Tom, presumably fresh from his Olympic silver-medal winning performance, takes a few paces towards a diving board with a Malibu branded piña colada in hand. He steps onto the board when he sees printed on the pool floor: “1 in 4 UK drownings involve alcohol”. He turns, and we see on his knitted swim shorts “Don’t drink and dive.”
Oh, sweet simplicity.
There are also some fun, short vertical extensions too - here, here, and here.
As an ad, this is brilliant. It’s funny, and the star of the show has an actual role here. Tom Daley’s knitting hobby is well-known, and it feels like the ad was made with him in mind, rather than what happens more often than we’d all like - a last minute scramble for an influencer who kinda sorta fits the brief.
As a piece of social good, I think this is a winner too. My favourite ad ever in this category is Metro Trains’ “Dumb Ways to Die”, which is silly by design. And this campaign works in a similar way - telling people not to drink sounds boring, so you need to embed the message in a funny creative wrapper. No matter how good that piña colada looks.
Putting the question out to the public to make some real change
SheSays, an organisation that promotes gender equality in the workplace (and more), has launched a campaign called “Rework the future”. The campaign consists of a few OOH pieces that leave a blank in a sentence about the future of work, with audiences encouraged to complete the lines, submit their thoughts online, and have their voices heard when SheSays presents to businesses in September.
Ok, so that’s what the campaign is. I’m struggling a bit with what the campaign does.
The cause is noble, which makes it hard not to just immediately like the work. But the conceit is a bit… odd? The blanks that the campaign leaves feel genuinely difficult to fill. Take this example:
“The best bosses will be the ones who ____________”.
Ummm, the ones who create an inclusive environment where everyone feels safe and respected. The ones who prioritize work-life balance for everyone, regardless of gender. The ones who ensure that voices of all genders are heard and valued.
There’s no one right answer, and it makes the creative a little difficult to parse.
Second, when you actually follow the link, you are not asked to fill the blanks - there’s a much easier survey to take. The survey is a win, the disconnect isn’t as much.
Right, obviously the campaign is intended to draw attention to the work SheSays are doing, and get people to come and fill out the survey. It worked on me. They’re bold and simple and bright, and to be fair, being difficult to answer makes them a bit thought-provoking. I just feel that having no mention of what SheSays does or what they are going to do with the survey in the ads themselves leaves them a bit lacking. I am being overly critical I think, but there are some campaigns that you just wish were perfect for the issue they are supporting.
I tried so hard to think of a pun that could tie in No. 3 on my all-time top 10 Disney movie songs (“Go the Distance” from Hercules, for anyone curious).
I love this campaign, from insight to execution.
Everyone is long sick of being told that if we all just recycled a bit more, reused a plastic bag, took a bus instead of a car, that we’ll solve the climate crisis.
We should all do those things. But we all know that the way to really address this is for those in power to do something. And finally, we’re all sick to death with the fact that they just aren’t doing anything. They need to put in the effort. Even if it’s a slog.
Just like the long-distance runners we’ve all seen during the Olympics.
Fixing the planet may be a marathon, not a sprint. But we need the right people running it. And that’s what Greenpeace’s “Go The Distance” campaign does. Countries, characterised as politician-looking business-wear-attired individuals, are running a marathon, turning down bribes from lobbyists and flat-out ignoring fossil fuels (also characterised as people).
This is really good, no? It’s a complicated insight (it took me 3.5 sentences to express what I think it is). But the ad handles it really smartly. There’s a moment where you almost feel proud of the runners, just like we did seeing the Olympians compete. And then you realise what they’re running for. And that the sad truth is that, right now, there aren’t enough countries even in the race. That hits pretty hard, in my opinion.
And “It’s time for our world leaders to go the distance” is a really good line. Yes, it is bloody well time.
I studied English Lit, so it is to me.
As part of their ongoing drive to get people to get their ears checked at their stores, Specsavers have launched a new campaign called “The Mishead Manifesto”. The video leading the campaign features broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, a very well-spoken man, who takes us through some classic British phrases that have become butchered over time.
“Escape goat”, rather than a scapegoat.
“Damp squid”, rather than damp squib.
“Wriggle room”, rather than wiggle room.
“Chomp at the bit” rather than champ at the bit.
Gyles then tells us that he recently found out that he suffers from hearing loss, and so wants to preserve our great sayings.
No, this isn’t really social good. Being a little snobby over language isn’t socially good - in fact it’s the kind of thing that most people would probably call anti-social. But there is something inherently good in what Specsavers are doing around hearing.
As we age, we naturally lose some of our hearing. And there are millions of people in the UK who either don’t know that it’s fairly easy to do something about it, or who might be unwilling to admit that their hearing is going. Not stretching things too far, but having your ability to communicate with others must be a contributing factor to the loneliness epidemic we see amongst the elderly. Being proactive about encouraging people to get their hearing checked feels like a good thing, even if it does just drive Specsavers’ business.
This is exactly what I have in mind when I think of social good advertising. Improve people’s lives while winning for your business. There’s a case study from 2019 where Specsavers used Google ads to increase hearing test uptake by 218% YoY. That’s money in Specsavers’ pocket, and that’s more people with correctly diagnosed hearing loss. And given Specsavers’ continued growth into 2023/24, reaching £4bn global revenue for the first time, I’d be surprised if work like this doesn’t continue to be effective. Plus, the campaign itself is just a bit nice. Who doesn’t like seeing Gyles on their TV?