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As Businesses Grow, Can They Keep Their Environmental Promises?

This question is at the center of two recent articles: “A Coffee Conundrum” about Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (New York Times) and “Start Here. Change Everything.” about Justin’s Nut Butters (Ad Age). 

Good reading about the challenges and opportunities that face environmentally-friendly companies as they scale up. 

Buckets for the Cure: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Like most people, when I first saw that Komen for the Cure had partnered with KFC to create Buckets for the Cure, I thought it was a joke.  And then I sort of wanted to throw up in my mouth a little.  (To figure out your own reaction, watch this 15 second video below).

But then I started feeling a bit of guilt.  Was I just being an elitist snob?  A brand purist?  If KFC is prepared to give the single largest donation to Komen in history (they’ve already pledged more than $2.5 million at the time of this posting), why was I being such a jerk about it?

When I started looking for validation online, I discovered a heap of reactions that I’ve rounded up below.  These are excellent thought pieces that highlight the opportunities, potential pitfalls, and subtleties of cause marketing today.  (To see what people are saying about Buckets for the Cure on Twitter right now, click here).

Breast Cancer Action: Think Before You Pink

“We started Think Before You Pink to pull back the curtain on the surge in pink cause marketing. We are deeply concerned about the implications of KFC’s and Komen for the Cure’s new ‘Buckets for the Cure’ campaign.  KFC = Komen Fails Communities”

Getting Attention: How a Nonprofit Brand Goes Bust — Komen’s KFC Pink Buckets for the Cure

“My disappointment is a shadow of what you’d feel on discovering your spouse has been having a long-term affair, while you and the rest of the family carried on based on the assumption that s/he was in. The person you thought you knew is really someone different, which kills your trust of him/her across the board.”

Selfish Giving: Komen’s Cause Marketing Program Isn’t Fingerlickin’ Good

“This is America where money can justify any crime, wash away any guilt, sanitize any reputation and rationalize any bad idea.  As a cause marketer who loves to win and close deals, I understand why Komen wanted to work with KFC. The lure of seven-figures. The promotion. It’s intoxicating. You talk yourself into it. Would I have advocated a similar partnership within my organization? Maybe. But thankfully my colleagues and superiors have better judgement than I do. Komen, at least in this instance, has been blinded by its ambitions.”

Rally the Cause: Cause Dissonance — KFC and Komen Buckets for the Cure

“While the website is impressive and puts the focus on the cause, it’s full of cause dissonance. That’s problematic as we become increasingly interconnected.  From the same web browser I viewed the campaign website, I did a few quick searches to learn more about the nutritional information of KFC buckets of chicken and the role of obesity in cancer.”

Geoff Livingston: Dancing With the Devil — Cause Marketing for Nonprofits

“In reality, while there is a mismatch in this partnership, the fault actually lies with Komen and not KFC. This represents a larger issue where nonprofits consistently choose money over strategic partnerships, dancing with the wrong partner and degrading their brand value.”

Three Ninety Eight: When Charity is a Marketing Stunt

“Corporations are creating unneccessarily unhealthy products and are mass marketing them to children and low-income communities, resulting in the highest rates of obesity and diabetes that this country has ever seen. Corporate social responsibility campaigns like the one that KFC launched with Susan G. Komen for the Cure appear to be an attempt to placate consumers and draw attention away from any negative associations with their products — rather than a genuine effort to help anyone.”

CNN: Activists Call Foul on KFC Bucket Campaign

New York University professor Marion Nestle tells CNN, “The goals of food companies, alas, are not the same as the goals of public health. Food companies are businesses that must sell expanding numbers of products. While it seems possible that their goals and those of public health could overlap, they rarely do. Buckets for the Cure gets money for whatever it does. KFC sells more buckets. Sounds good, if you don’t think about it too much.”

Beanstockd: New KFC Buckets for the Cure Campaign Gives You Excuse to Eaet Fried Chicken

“Although many have boycotted this idea, we say go for it! It’s fairly obvious that in America, where the obesity rate is over 30%, people are going to eat what they want to eat — we might as well raise some money in support of something along the way.”

fitsugar: KFC’s Buckets for the Cure: Cool or Not?

“On a very basic level, fried chicken is not the healthiest menu choice and can lead to obesity. And many doctors agree that obesity puts a woman at higher risk for developing breast cancer, since many breast cancers are fueled by estrogen, a hormone produced by fat tissue.”

The Power of Transparency

In the past month, I changed my behavior twice as a result of reading nutritional labels.  I guess it’s not such a big deal, except I’m the kind of guy who generally eats what he wants.  The first time it happened was in New York City at Nathan’s grill, the second time was in Nashville at the Jack in the Box drive-through.

I feel ridiculous admitting I was shocked by the amount of calories packed into a medium fries and a chocolate shake—something absurd like 650 and 850, respectively—but I’ve never really looked closely enough.  That, and the city of Chicago doesn’t make fast foods display the calorie counts of each item by law.  Therefore when I saw the calorie count right next to the price, it made a difference.  So much so that I threw out half my fries (I ordered before I looked up) and opted for the fruit smoothie.

It’s not yet clear if these mandated labels are changing behavior across the board, but the folks behind health care reform seem to think it’s a step in the right direction.  The New York Times reported:

“If you think the health care reform bill had nothing to do with your lunch, think again. A little noticed national calorie labeling rule tucked into the legislation assures that within a couple of years, everyone who walks into a chain restaurant will see calories counts displayed alongside the price of a meal.”

But this is about more than food.  It’s about how labels—really, true transparency—help us make better choices.

Take for example Timberland’s “Nutritional” Footprint for its footwear: labels they put on shoe boxes showing the social and environmental impact that particular product has made.  When I heard about this, I loved the idea.  Not only does it inform the consumer, but it motivates the designer of the shoe (after all, what designer wants their shoe to have a “THIS SHOE IS BAD FOR THE EARTH” label all over their work?).

The problem with these labels, though, is that we don’t really know how the energy to produce a certain pair of shoes, for instance, compares with industry averages.  There’s not a real context.  The only reason I truly understand what 650 calories means is because I’ve started going to the gym, where it takes me an hour to burn that amount.  So I get the real consequences.

I want to see more companies be open about what goes into their products.  Not because I want to hold them accountable, but because I want to hold myself accountable.

I want to know that I have a choice between a “250 calorie” product and a “1000 calorie” product. And if I choose to purchase the “1000 calorie” product, that I know I’ll have a lot of work to do the next day to make up for it.