Posted By: Mira Trapper
Best Defense???? A Strong Offense!!!! - 12/09/08 02:57 PM
Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2008 10:57:08 -0800
Subject: 'Fur is Green' campaign coverage (Calgary Herald)
Calgary Herald
Making the case that wearing fur can be eco-friendly
New advertising campaign coloured green
Hollie Shaw, Financial Post
Published: Friday, December 05, 2008
http://www.canada.com:80/calgaryherald/news/calgarybusiness/story.html?id=ec4980cc-1308-4d55-8cdd-cc781a25208e
Contrarian advertising can work well if it attracts the right kind of attention. Or the wrong kind of attention.
Marketers say merely getting consumers to notice your message is half the battle in a competitive and cluttered field of advertisements, tunes, logos and images -- and a campaign that challenges widespread attitudes or beliefs can do that effectively.
The Fur Council of Canada which, in past marketing has emphasized the historic made-in-Canada aspects of its business and its ties to Native Canadian trappers, stepped up its messaging this year with a bold and decidedly contrarian declaration: Fur is green. (And that would be green as in eco-friendly, not green because an animal-rights protester has sprayed it with paint.)
Billboards in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary proclaiming the eco-fur message and pointing to the council's informational Web site, FurIsGreen.com,have drawn the attention -- and, in some cases, the ire -- of passers-by. The print ads are even more provocative than the billboards, depicting one fur-clad model beside the heading 'Eco-fashion' and another, literally adorned in animal pelts, beside the caption 'Environmental Activist.' The council bills its in-house campaign as a way to promote the "ethical and ecological virtues" of Canada's founding industry.
"With increasing interest in protecting the planet, we thought it was important to talk about sustainability," said Alan Herscovici, the council's executive vice-president.
"What is still not really understood is the important difference between animal welfare conservation and animal rights. Animal welfare is the idea that we use animals, but that we have to use them responsibly. Animal rights is a completely different concept which says animals have ethical rights like people."
The council contends that the industry is green, in part, because it is sustainable and has been for hundreds of years. It values Canada's 2007 fur exports at $381-million, largely comprised of raw fur, valued at about $310-million.
"Beaver and muskrat produce more young than nature can support to maturity -- that's nature,"Mr. Herscovici said. "We can use part of that surplus that nature produces that is called sustainable use."
In addition, he said, many Canadians eat meat and the council wanted to draw a parallel. "When a trapper's family is eating the beaver roast, should they throw out the fur?"
Fur coats can be re-styled or recycled, the council adds, and the raw product is also biodegradable when it is eventually disposed of.
Andris Pone, partner and brand coach at Instinct Brand Equity, applauds the audaciousness of the council's marketing department.
"It is a great, bold, strategic move for the Fur Council because they have taken the great strength of their [ideological opponents] and used it for their own: They have borrowed the brand equity of their enemies," Mr. Pone said. "This is not going to change a single mind among those who are hardcore in the [antifur] movement, but it could really open minds in those who are not as ideological. Some in the [former group] will be angry."
The campaign could have a lot of longevity, he said. "There is plenty of creative room here to work and push forward and go further with this message."
Not everyone in the advertising business finds the audacity appealing, however.
"I was just livid when I saw it," said Brenda McNeilly, vice-president and creative director at Fuse Marketing Group in Toronto. "I think people who don't work in [the advertising] business will think they can work in this business and lie in an ad. We are called to certain quality standards of truthfulness and ethics.
"There are all of these ridiculous bandwagon green campaigns [right now]. You are talking about raising and killing 40 to 60 animals for one fur coat. To say that is 'green' is offensive to any thinking advertising person."
A July study by Gandalf Group for ad agency Bensimon Byrne found 75% of Canadians believe environmental claims are often just marketing ploys, and 65% said the term "green" has been used so much that it makes little impact.
Ms. McNeilly said environmentalists might also take issue with the campaign, given the chemicals used in dressing the pelts and the process of protecting and preserving fur.
In the ads, said, "trapping is being portrayed as a livelihood [in Canada], something which is very, very rare."
While brands can be commended for trying to be contrarian, "disruptive, or disarming in their marketing approaches, clients need to beware of the backlash," she cautioned. "The more informed the consumer, the bigger the backlash."
hshaw@nationalpost.com
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