With Earth Day approaching next week–and in light of my co-chairing a 10-day celebration–I’ll be writing a series of blog posts between now and April 22 on the art of green, paying homage to mavens who are using social media and online marketing to promote themselves and others.
I begin with Christine Marchuska, whose eco-friendly clothing company–with the sustainable mission to unite high fashion with the ever-growing need to take action to preserve our planet–produced this virally-spreading sexy video:
How does the video make you feel? Is it successful to make you want more?
After six years working in equities, fixed income sales, and other financial gobbledygook to my humanities-trained brain, Christine Marchuska switched careers and founded her green fashion firm.
She elaborates in a recent interview with Elena Lipson:
Current green fashion, for the most part, is either stylish and extremely overpriced or affordable and shapeless/not stylish. My line, cmarchuska, encompasses this middle market offering affordable stylish and chic pieces made with care in New York’s Garment District out of top notch sustainable fabrics. My intern actually coined a great phrase for the line – ‘luxe for less.’
Hat tip to Starre Vartan (whose blog I found from a random link from another green blog) for introducing me to Christine and her spring line of clothing: an American-made, fair-trade product with a low carbon footprint.
Sounds good to me. I can think of many local boutiques that would enjoy carrying Christine’s line.
The cmarchuska website includes a link to this 750-member Facebook group, whose public “wall” is constantly updated with congratulatory comments and feedback on her lovely clothing.
Did I mention for every product purchased, 5% of net sales are donated to charity?
Related posts:
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I think people want to be green, but I don’t think they want to sacrifice much to achieve it. Better if we can live the way we’ve grown accustomed to living, feel the way we like to feel and still, incidentally, be green. I think this video is directed at that side of peoples’ thinking, and it’s quite effective in the sense that you’re left focusing on the sexiness of the moment and associating that with the product and thus wanting the product without ever knowing about the sustainable, green nature of the product. If sustainable products are going to suplant the unsustainable incumbent products they’ll have to appeal to our emotions and our desires, not our virtue. By that measure, I consider this a very successful ad.
Ethan Yarbrough´s last blog post..The Revolution and Enterprise 2.0 Adoption
Is the ad successful enough for you to share it with others and/or those who may purchase her product line? Or did you view it merely as an ad?
With all the greenwashing currently going on, you need to separate yourselves from your competition. Sex is a great way as long as it done in an interesting and fun manner. However, green reliant companies are always going to struggle unless they have a clear plan to add value to the market place.
You have to stand out.
Stuart Foster´s last blog post..Why Overexposure Can be Bad for PR
Is it successful enough that I’d share it with others or did I only view it as an ad…
Well, my reaction to it was probably shaped somewhat by the fact that I was introduced to it here on your blog where — even though you didn’t call it an ad — you mentioned that the clothing company had produced it. Therefore, I guess I went into it already thinking of it as an ad. Even without that, I don’t know that I would have shared this with friends once I realized that it was advertising the clothing line. In fact, I probably would have felt manipulated and come away with a negative reaction. But, again because of the context in which I found it here — that is, presented as something produced by an eco-friendly company — I was inclined to feel positively about it. I want to see eco-friendly companies succeed; I believe they need to downplay the “green” element to do so. That’s what I saw this ad doing so I felt it was successful. In terms of associating a feeling with the brand, I think it hits the mark.
Ethan Yarbrough´s last blog post..Can Targeting Enterprise 2.0 Improve ROI Measurement?
I must be getting old. To be honest this looked like a run of the mill fashion ad and I may have been distracted but I didn’t catch the green hook. It’s sexy, and that always seems to be forwarded, probably by their target market. I do agree there is a niche available for budget green chic. The more green becomes a baseline attribute (This is great and its green) versus (Hey its green and it works pretty good) the quicker we’ll see ‘non-green’ disappear.
Fred H Schlegel´s last blog post..Physics and Ideation: Ways To Unleash Creativity
I think you have made a very much nice way to make ad of ‘GREEN’ through the blog. Well made a very much of background music on the video. Definitely anyone of us would like to have more seeing the above video. Totally a hot and sexy commercial of cmarchuska.
Thanks for introducing me to this clothing line. I agree that many things that are environmentally are expensive but they have style or or cheap with no style. The people want the best of both worlds!
From Rain Barrel to you: Urban Rain Gardens at UrbanGardensWeb
Well the advert certainly grabs the viewers attention but I’m not sure how good it is for the brand. It doesn’t even mention that the clothes are eco-friendly which seems like a big detail to leave out!
From Thomas to you: New Fashion Trend: Lingerie As Outerwear
To fail to innovate is to fail at being. Becoming. Innovation. These must be your watchwords.