This is a recent ad from Orange, showing a group of young girls volunteering for their community in what looks like a South London estate. The ad itself is enjoyable and well made. It tells its story very eloquently indeed. But is it the right story?

From a civil standpoint, this campaign is very appealing. Sure, in an ideal world young people would choose to volunteer and help their communities without other incentive. But I’m no fundamentalist (I have my adbusting friends for that) and tend to be more pragmatic. My experience, working with youth groups during my university years, leads me to honestly believe that once teenagers experience the fulfilment, local pride and sense of achievement that volunteering for your community gives, they will continue to do it of their own accord. So it’s easy to assume this ad passes the civil test with flying colours.

But what about the branding aspect? What’s the final effect of this communication piece? It’s easy to agree there is a worthy cause here, and that the young people in the ad come across as warm, positive and authentic with a strong sense of optimistic solidarity, all themes that are relevant to Orange’s ‘I am everybody’ campaign. But what about the Orange brand? Do these qualities ‘rub-off’ on the brand or does the message of the ad feel separate from the primary narrative of the brand?

It may be easy for anyone to relate to the ad’s content, but what are the dominant associations it engenders for the brand? Hard to say. Is there an alternative story that would have worked as strongly on the civil as well as the branding aspects?

As a part of  Brandinstinct’s involvement with the Civil Branding initiative, I often play devil’s advocate. This is not because I don’t believe in the concept. The beliefs driving civil branding are deeply imbued in how I think about the future of marketing. However, Civil Branding as a workable concept is still evolving and as companies develop this new philosophy of marketing communications, a lot is yet to be discovered.

These are not optimistic times, but there is substantial evidence that companies are becoming increasingly aware of their impact on the world and are trying to adopt more sustainable behaviours. Environmental impact seems to be the fastest evolving subject and social responsibility a close second.

This trend is further driven by a virtuous cycle created by the public, the media and the government. The focus for both is corporate impact on the physical environment. Civil Branding is deeply concerned about the impact on the mental environment. However, while our research suggests people are acutely aware of that mental impact, this agenda is not as explicit as the physical one yet.

Like its sister cause, sustainable design challenges, Civil Branding requires a systemic view leading to a long-term solution. I can’t help but feel current efforts are a little like early environmentally conscious advertising, they are as yet to fully integrate with brand strategies.