You’re reading the first installment of Greenpeace’s new weekly roundup “EnvironmentaLIST.”For the debut list, here’s a look back at the best brandjacking moments, using a brand’s look and feel to raise awareness about their destructive environmental habits.
From a very deliberate hijacking of one oil company’s online presence to a friendly use of a beloved tech company’s visual advertising, the examples below surely triggered “how to protect your brand” trends in the public relations industry.
9. Kelloggs
Meet FrankenTony, the genetically engineered Tony the Tiger made with 60 percent genetically modified corn from 2000.
8. Barbie
Ken learns of Barbie’s scandalous deforestation habit. She’s been wrapping herself in rainforest destruction and pushing endangered Sumatran tigers to the brink of extinction.
7. Green My Apple
Back in 2007, Greenpeace launched the “Green My Apple” campaign, pressuring Apple to lead the tech industry and manufacture toxic-free products with global recycling programs. The company committed to phase out the worst of its chemicals only months later and to pledge a recycling program. Watch a spoof of the classic “Mac Guy” ads.
6.Home Depot
Greenpeace activists installed The Home Depot’s logo on a clear cut swath of ancient trees in British Columbia, Canada, in protest of the company’s refusal to stop selling wood from ancient forests.Greenpeace presented the image at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Atlanta the next day.
5. Levis
Part of the global detox campaign to protect global waterways from hazardous textile manufacturing, Greenpeace targeted several international fashion brands including Levis. Using the brand’s own messaging #GoForth on Twitter and staging a vertical catwalk in front of a Denmark Levis store.
4. Kleenex
Launched in 2004, Greenpeace targeted Kleenex parent company Kimberly Clark for their clear cutting deforestation in the Boreal Forest. Using the company’s iconic Kleenex image, the campaign included stuffing Kleenex boxes with campaign stickers and this billboard below greeting Kleenex employees at their headquarters.
3. Chicken of the Sea, Starkist and Bumblebee
Greenpeace teamed up with Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Mark Fiore to expose the the tuna industry’s destructive fishing practices, including catching bycatch like sea turtles, manta rays and sharks.
2. Nestle
Parodying the candy bar company’s Kit Kat commercials, Greenpeace used the brand’s “Gimme a Break” slogan to launch a campaign against the Nestle’s use of palm oil from endangered Indonesian rainforests and orangutan habitat.
1. Shell
Greenpeace teamed up with the Yes! Men, known for elaborate corporate hoaxes, to launch the fake Shell site, Arctic Readyand Let’s Go campaign. Complete with a user-generated ad campaign and billboards near the Shell headquarters in Houston, the campaign raised awareness of the company’s insistence on drilling in the Arctic. Shell announced they would not try to drill again in 2013.
