Despite being a bunch of  bike riding, tree-hugging granolas, all of the contributors for Civil Branding go out of our way to not write about environmental efforts and green branding.

We believe that being green is one of many activities that a company can undertake in order to help create a more civil trajectory for society. We avoid talking about green efforts simply because we want to promote the other 90% of worthy civil actions that brands can undertake to create a better society and differentiate ther brands. In fact, it can be argued that very little brand differentiation can be accomplished these days by going green.

Hence, my surprise at Stella Artois’ new campaign promoting green values. It’s a beautiful campaign, staying true to the French Riviera concept established by the TVCs. However, the strategy is not an obvious fit for the brand and seems like a real risk for the brand to take.

The Stella Artois brand has achieved incredible status, honing an art-loving, intellectual and deliciously dark humourous edge. Through careful management and bold moves it has turned its premium pricing into a positioning advantage. All the while, it remains the staple of all pubs and lager hounds.

Well done Stella.

Trouble is, how does green fi into this brand? Brands need to evolve and their meaning needs to become more complex – no question. But brands should also move in the established trajectory that they have taken so long to set.

When I see these ads, too many questions come to mind. Is 75% good? Is it better than the competition? Is it a remarkable benchmark? A simple search online makes me wonder. Entire countries like Switzerland and Finland recycle 90% of their glass. Being Canadian, I know that Ontario beer stores recycle almost 100% of their bottles and cans. Innocent use 100% recycled materials to create their bottles.

Stella should be proud of their environmental efforts and maybe these should be used as yet another reason to buy their beer. But when a brand begins to claim territory that is far off its trajectory, it begins to take on the risk of seeming unauthentic. Greenwashing is the major authenticity hazard of the decade but there are others. The recession has seen many premium brands try to include ‘value-for-money’ notions in their positioning (and fail). We also see brands like French EDF being accused of hypocrisy when waving the British flag.

There are many brands that easily claim green inside their brand. For example, Innocent promotes notions of purity, goodness and harmony through their brand and therefore has  a natural claim on all things green. Environmental messages permeate the brand just as naturally as they do with the Body Shop.

Stella are going into partnership with The Tree Council to plant hedges in the British countryside, so it seems that they are really putting their weight behind the effort. I am sure the campaign will live on in appropriate media like POS and packs.

As I say earlier, all brands need to evolve the meaning and become increasingly complex. However, the emphasis needs to be placed on EVOLVE. The campaign has been plastered on every surface in London and has had very high media exposure in the UK. This surge ignores the softly-softy approach that most brands adopt when trying to evolve the meaning of their brands. using this approach creates a lot of attention and risk should things not work out.