The image of two partially-clothed characters sharing a bed and enjoying long, leisurely pulls on their respective cigarettes is, in pop culture terms, visual code language for post-coital bliss. And if certain acts of love are commonly understood to work up an appetite for nicotine, who’s to say that others—tree-hugging, for example—can’t be followed by a pleasurable puff?
Certainly not Imperial Tobacco Canada, which earlier this spring launched print and out-of-home advertisements that tout the packaging changes the company made to its du Maurier brand in the name of the environment. Alongside the tagline, “Small steps make the difference,” the ad alerted consumers to the two small changes Imperial made—the switch from foil to recyclable paper wrapper inside 20-packs of du Maurier and the decision to source the brand’s cardboard packaging material from suppliers that meet sustainable forest management standards.
By Imperial’s own admission, these steps aren’t massive ecological game-changers, but rather evidence of a new, positive direction. Yet the company’s reward for publicizing its new packaging was criticism from anti-smoking advocates and environmental groups. In one Toronto Star article, for example, a spokesperson from the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment accused Imperial of “green washing,” while the Toronto Environmental Alliance referred to the campaign as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Catherine Doyle, manager of corporate communications for Imperial Tobacco Canada, isn’t exactly shocked by the negative reaction to the ads. But she doesn’t fully understand it, either. “It doesn’t surprise me because tobacco is a very controversial product and anything we do is going to incite emotion,” she says. “But in another sense, with any other company that took an initiative to reduce its environmental footprint, there would never be this type of uproar.”
Doyle also believes that critics are misreading the intentions and the target audience for the ads, which were designed by Toronto’s OgilvyAction and appeared in publications such as Toronto Life and in bars and restaurants in major cities. According to Doyle, the ads were simply designed to make smokers aware of a more ecologically sound option. “This package is for that smoker who is looking to buy a premium brand and may say, ‘oh look, du Maurier has done something to be a little bit kinder to the environment, so I’ll choose that brand,’ ” she says. “It’s not to the general public, it’s not to anyone else but that adult smoker looking for an offering that will appeal to them.”
Marc Stoiber, founder of Change, a Vancouver marketing agency that specializes in greening up the image of brands, says the Imperial campaign is an example of a great message combined with dreadful delivery. He says Imperial could easily have avoided, or at least mitigated, the reaction to its packaging change by adopting a different communication tactic.
“I applaud them for paying attention and for making a packaging change, because packaging changes are not cheap,” says Stoiber. “And if they come out and say every small step makes a difference, that’s entirely true—a little change [in packaging] spread over a billion packs of cigarettes is going to make a huge difference. “But by putting ads out, they negate any goodwill they would have had.”
Stoiber says the better move would have been to engage environmentally-themed blogs and websites and have external sources convey its message. “Having other people say they were making a step in the right direction would have been far more powerful than them coming out with advertising, because as soon as they do that, it’s even worse than greenwash,” he says.
Both Doyle and Stoiber acknowledge that tobacco companies, vilified as they are, are in a tough position when it comes to getting credit for positive initiatives. But the high probability of backfire only makes it more important to message strategically. In communicating about its decreased environmental footprint, Imperial stepped in mud. And small steps, especially missteps, can indeed make a big difference.
