Tropicana shed some light (and plenty of OJ) on the permanent darkness Canadians living up north deal with during winter months. First a Facebook group complete with photos and videos, and now their top TV spot, we checked it out and compiled our thoughts:
“ A cute idea, but not sustainable. It’s not like they’ve leave the article sun plugged in forever. Or during the times of darkness in the Arctic.”
“It’s also unlikely that the local stores even stock Tropicana. And I don’t even want to know the eco-footprint on this little gem of an idea.”
“It’s made a lot of the industry blogs: I think you guys are bang-on re: sustainability and carbon footprint. Also: while the final execution does look cool, the whole thing somehow feels really forced to me.”
“But it’s a good ‘forced’. It simply connects with the brand and tells a nice story for the viewer. Instead of donating money or time to a cause, they delivered an interesting experience to the folks up north and, in turn, delivered an interesting experience to us.”
“Happily they’re doing this through a real event, done docu-style and it’s a fairly authentically positive feeling all around. I liked it the moment I saw it on Creativity and, you know, I’m wild for the modern ads that are grounded in core human truths.”
Summary: Thoughtful and inspiring, but with practicality an issue. They made people happy on an artistic level, but the faux sun won’t stay forever and the free juice will run out.
On a note closer to the basics:
“Getting sick of hummable little folk ditties as soundtracks though.”
As well, to gain a little more insight; some comments from the Facebook group:
“I cannot believe how unauthentic and frivolous this is. For the sake of the connection of an ad to your tagline, you disrespect the situation in which a community lives in, in northern Canada by “brightening one day” with a balloon. So the next day, the place is back in darkness (actual and metaphorical) and the Tropic…”-Maya
To the response of…
“There’s always someone to make a good deed look bad! I think it was wonderful to travel so far to brighten someone’s day, even if it was only one day!!”! -Dinah
Seems the thoughts are like night and day…