Enviromedia Social Marketing

Local and national news media aren’t covering the H1N1 swine flu outbreak as heavily as they once were, but that doesn’t mean it’s gone from the United States yet. It’s still out there, and there is finally a plentiful supply of H1N1 vaccine.

Just two weeks ago, EnviroMedia paid for an H1N1 clinic to come to our office and provide vaccines for all willing employees.

Shelly Beaird, EnviroMedia's senior media planner, gets her flu shot.

Vaccines aside, we hope you’ve learned some important behavior changes that will prevent the spread of regular flu and other illnesses. Behavior change media campaigns by the US Centers for Disease Control and state and local health departments are reinforcing the 3 C’s we developed for the State of Texas years ago: 1. Clean your hands often; 2. Cover your cough and sneeze (use your elbow, not your hands); and 3. Contain yourself at home until 24 hours after your fever breaks.

EnviroMedia’s experiential marketing department just completed a Flu Fighters tour at 50 schools in every major market in Texas. Check out our multi-media Kung Fu school assemblies, along with some of the news coverage. Kids loved the music and the moves, and they’ll never sneeze into their hands again.

Spanish language animated TV/web spot:

School assembly video:

Channel 4’s Valley Morning News really got into the Flu Fighter moves.

A recent poll from Harvard University revealed 59 percent of Americans said the response to the H1N1 swine flu pandemic was “good or “excellent.” There are a lot of areas for improvement related to vaccine manufacturing and distribution, but hopefully the public will keep the healthy habits going for a lifetime.

By Katie Deinhammer, Director of Accounts

Americans really want to be healthier. As a country, our favorite New Year’s resolution — year after year — is to lose weight. So, either we’re all high on success and just want to get skinnier and skinnier, or we’re failing miserably and have to start over every year.

Why is it so hard for us to make the right choices? Food marketers have caught on to the fact that we want to make the healthier choice, and every January they do their best to position their products in the healthiest light possible. They call out anything that sounds remotely nutritious — “now with antioxidants” or “made with only three all-natural ingredients” — on packaging, in commercials, on their Web sites and on your best friend’s Facebook page. So, we end up buying foods we convince ourselves are healthy because the labels suggest they are, even though we know deep down that an all-natural potato chip is still a greasy chip even if it only has three organic ingredients. And once we try these foods, we like them (because they’re much more sugary/fatty/calorie-rich than the pretty ads with amber waves of grain suggest), and we keep eating them until next January when we realize we’ve gained 10 pounds and resolve again to lose weight.

If food and beverage marketers were politicians, they’d almost all be busted for whitewashing. If we question the antioxidants in their sodas like we’d question an eco-friendly appliance delivered in a box filled with styrofoam, we’d write them off as greenwashers. So why not call them out for leanwashing? To be clear, we don’t necessarily have a problem with “responsible” junk food advertising, as long as a cookie is called a cookie, not an “all natural energy boost with protein” just because it has one walnut in it.

Two years ago, EnviroMedia launched a consumer discussion forum about the responsibility and authenticity of environmental marketing claims — the Greenwashing Index. Perhaps it’s time to take a similar look at leanwashing. In the meantime, make it your 2010 resolution to notice nutritional claims, and put them to the leanwashing test: Even though something about them sounds healthy, will you be resolving to hit the treadmill again in 2011 if you eat them all year?

If you’re looking for more information about how you can work toward making the healthy choice the default choice, take a look at this video series we produced for the Texas Department of State Health Services highlighting successful community-based efforts around Texas. Our work is currently being showcased by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a national foundation dedicated to improving the health and health care of all Americans.

Our award-winning TV spot “Phone Power” was strategically placed by EnviroMedia Buying Services to run repeatedly during broadcasts of the 2010 Bowl Championship Series football games. We’re confident these “Yes You Can” ads will again drive smokers and their families to call the American Cancer Society’s “Quit Line” (1-888-YES-QUIT) for free professional counseling on smoking cessation. Usually call volumes increase about 300 percent during these media campaigns. Online help is also available at yesquit.org.

EnviroMedia has been working on tobacco prevention and cessation for ten years now with the Texas Department of State Health Services, and research shows during that time, hundreds of thousands of smokers have taken action to quit their addiction to cigarettes.

Research reveals most smokers attempt quitting their habit several times, and that support from family, friends and others increases the chance of breaking their addiction.

How do Germans, Italians and French compare to US individuals when it comes to charitable giving. You may be surprised. Read on.

By making new donations this week to official (501c3) nonprofit charities in the US, you can deduct the same amount in federal income taxes from your 2008 return (due next April). With the economy still hurting so many, you should know there are so many charities to support, who would greatly appreciate your gift, and should be able to get you a receipt dated by 12/31/2008.

At EnviroMedia, we’re happy that our company contributions exceeded corporate social responsibility standards. For a list of the types of community nonprofits we’ve supported throughout our company history, click here. Many of us employees also contribute to EarthShare through monthly pay roll deductions. We also support the “I Live Here, I Give Here” campaign.

I’m impressed with these graphic stories about money, death & taxes from WallStats.com Check out this related graphic about charitable giving. I find it interesting how little money goes to environmental and animal issues groups.

budget planner – Mint.com

So surf the web and pull out your credit card to help a health or environmental charity. There’s a great site called Charity Navigator that helps you feel reasonably comfortable where your money is going and how it will be spent.

EnviroMedia staffers were surprised at our annual holiday party Dec. 4 to learn agency principals Kevin Tuerff and Valerie Davis planned to donate $6,000 to buy 50 bikes for Central Texas children — one bike in honor of each employee.  The donation is through JB & Sandy’s 13th Annual “Bikes for Kids” Drive on Austin radio station Mix 94.7, where individuals and corporations donate money to help buy more than 800 bikes for kids who have been nominated by friends and family.

Wednesday, we dropped off our check to radio hosts JB and Sandy while they broadcast live outside Freescale in Southwest Austin. Why? Freescale is generously matching donations up to $20,000, so EnviroMedia’s $6,000 donation is really a $12,000 gift for Central Texas children.

Sandy with Mix 94.7 and Ted Burton with EnviroMedia

EnviroMedia is calling 2009 our “Year of the Bike.”  Bikes symbolize our work on environmental and public health issues: they’re a carbon-free transportation option that also promotes good health. This week Kevin and Val are participating in their third United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, hosted in Copenhagen, Denmark, also known as the “City of Cyclists.” In 2009, EnviroMedia opened its new office in Portland, Oregon, one of the most progressive, bike-friendly cities in the country. We hope the bike donation will encourage people to think about the many benefits of biking year round. We hope our employees will feel good Christmas Day, knowing somewhere in the Austin area, a child woke up and found a brand new bicycle under their Christmas tree.

Kevin Tuerff, Valerie Davis, Shelly Beaird, and Sandy from Mix 94.7 talk about Bikes for Kids

EnviroMedia Cofounders to Participate in United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark.

More than half of Americans say they’ve never heard of cap and trade. But a new Web site, GreenDetectives.net, launched today to raise awareness of cap and trade and other complex climate change issues in advance of Copenhagen’s historical United Nations climate change conference.

In a few days, negotiators from 192 countries will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark, to work toward a treaty to replace the current global pollution reduction agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The 15th annual Conference of Parties (COP 15) will address global economic and humanitarian challenges, and may set in motion huge changes that affect an uninformed public.

“Between new Pew Center research illustrating low awareness and concern about climate change, and the millions of dollars invested in ‘debunking’ beliefs that it even exists, America has a real problem as we head into COP15 in Copenhagen,” says Valerie Davis, CEO of EnviroMedia, a firm that focuses on authentic green marketing.

EnviroMedia President Kevin Tuerff added, “Valerie and I have spent our careers researching and explaining air, water and waste pollution challenges to consumers. Global climate change is by far the most complex issue we’ve taken on, but we have faith Americans will contribute to the solution if they take time to understand the connection between our everyday lives as consumers, and important issues like cap and trade being discussed in Copenhagen at the United Nations climate change conference.”

Climate Change Decoder
The goal of the new Green Detectives Web site is to demystify the climate change debate before the United Nations climate change conference. At GreenDetectives.net, Tuerff and Davis simplify terms like climate finance, REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), climate adaptation, technology transfer and cap and trade through the use of a “decoder,” which provides a video explanation of the term selected by the user.

“Everyone needs to understand the terminology, words like cap and trade and climate finance, and keep up with these important debates,“ said Tuerff. “Greenhouse gas regulation is coming to the United States, and it will affect us all, so taking 15 minutes to watch the videos is a good start.”

In Copenhagen, Davis and Tuerff will provide daily updates on COP15 via GreenDetectives.net, and serve as delegates representing the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development. The web site will continue with related news into 2010.

They are the only American advertising industry executives who have provided perspective from these annual UN climate talks for three consecutive years. This year they also participated in business briefings with the U.S. State Department’s climate negotiators.

Davis and Tuerff were originally dubbed the “Green Detectives” in a 2008 Washington Times news article after they started GreenwashingIndex.com—an online tool featured in Time and Newsweek to call out misleading green advertising.

Follow Tuerff and Davis at GreenDetectives.net and on Twitter at twitter.com/enviromedia.

Editor’s Note: The Enviroblog (here) will continue to focus on social marketing, public health and environmental issues. The new Green Detectives blog will focus exclusively on climate change policy.

UPDATE: SINCE THIS POST, THE WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCED THE PRESIDENT WILL INDEED ATTEND AND SPEAK AT THE UNFCCC IN COPENHAGEN ON DEC. 9. Bravo! Must’ve been this blog. ;
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Check out the beautiful logo designed by the US Department of State for the 15th Council of Parties meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It’s part of a federal agency Website aimed primarily at foreigners wanting to know what the red, white and blue will commit to at the December 7-18, 2009 summit of 192 countries in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is trying to stay positive despite the US announcement that no comprehensive climate treaty would emerge from the talks, as many countries were hoping for.

From America.gov Website: Any agreement has to involve immediate global action on climate change, and all nations must meet their share of the responsibilities, Clinton said. The agreement must also cover all of the major issues, including adaptation, financing, technology cooperation and forest preservation, she said.

The agreement also must help provide funding to assist developing nations, which are often the least able to implement complex agreements, she added.

“We are prepared to support a global climate fund that will support adaptation and mitigation efforts and a matching entity to help developing countries match needs with available resources,” Clinton told reporters.

“Funding through the new global climate fund and a technology mechanism will help developing countries identify what they need, where to get it, and how to finance, operate and maintain it,” she said.

Clinton stressed that the Copenhagen conference is not the end of the process, as many in the media and environmental community have suggested.

US government climate negotiators Todd Stern and Jonathan Pershing

The funding part has indeed been left out of most media reports, and depending on the dollar amount committed by the US, the news should be welcomed by developing countries in particular. For 20 years, the UN has been working on climate change, but the funding to implement actions has been missing.

The more I stare at that US-Copenhagen logo (above), I wonder if that green line is really a frown?

NOTE: The EnviroMedia team is packing our bags for our trip to the Copenhagen event. We’ll again be serving as non-governmental delegates, and writing about our experiences for several media outlets. Check EnviroMedia’s Website on Nov. 30 for the launch of a new, fun public service effort aimed at educating Americans about climate change policy.

America Recycles Day is coming up Sunday, Nov. 15. EnviroMedia is a founding agency of this annual recycling awareness day. So to celebrate, our operations manager Cathy Levine, left, coordinated a building-wide paper and electronics recycling event with Goodwill, Austin Shred and Pyramid Properties. Cathy, who is joined by intern Maddy Kirklighter, documented the following results: EnviroMedia and 10 of our neighboring businesses collected and shredded some 2,800 pounds of paper and recycled 282 pounds of computer components. It’s not too late to do something for America Recycles Day. Visit http://www.americarecyclesday.org/