The New York Times
Friday, September 28, 2012
Green Mountain Coffee Begins Fair Trade Campaign - Advertising
By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN
GREEN MOUNTAIN COFFEE has been helping consumers wake up for more than three decades, but a new advertising campaign is meant to be an eye-opener of a different sort.
In recognition of October being Fair Trade Month, the brand is seeking to educate coffee drinkers about fair-trade certification, which many people may vaguely associate with worthiness without quite understanding it.
“I think about fair trade sometimes like antioxidants,” said Jonathan Yohannan, executive vice president for corporate responsibility at Cone Communications, one of several agencies working on the campaign, referring to substances often praised for their health benefits. “You know it’s good for you, but you don’t really know what it means.”
Green Mountain Coffee will help explain what fair trade means with a campaign called “Great coffee, good vibes, pass it on.” Print and online ads will direct consumers to the brand’s Facebook page, which will feature videos with the musicians Grace Potter and Michael Franti visiting certified coffee farms in Colombia and Sumatra.
“The videos are all about showing an authentic experience with fair trade, with the celebrities seeing firsthand the impact that fair trade has,” said Derek Archambault, senior brand manager for Green Mountain Coffee.
The brand works with the nonprofit Fair Trade USA, which certifies that producers conform to labor and environmental standards, and links farmers directly to companies rather than enriching middlemen.
When companies buy fair-trade coffee, they pay a community-development premium in addition to the base price. For every pound of conventionally grown coffee, the premium is 20 cents; for organically grown coffee, it is 50 cents, with 20 cents going to community development and the remaining 30 cents to farmers.
For more, visit www.nytimes.com.
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