Plenish Milks
This project was my response to a creative brief set by a marketing agency as part of their job interview process. The brief was to choose a drink brand and visualise how it could interact with its target audience in an “innovative, fun and engaging way” to get them to purchase one of its products.
Anti-greenwashing campaign targeting Toyota by the activist group Brandalism, January 2023.
Project Context
In response to the recent rise of eco-conscious consumerism, greenwashing, i.e., conveying misleading or false information to consumers about a company’s environmental impact, has become widespread. After reading about anti-greenwashing campaigns by activist groups such as Brandalism, I wondered:
Might there be an opportunity for a truly sustainable drink brand to gain the trust of eco-conscious consumers by tackling the topic of greenwashing in a promotional campaign and allowing them to scrutinise said brand’s environmental impact?
Plenish Milks.
Why Plenish?
Plenish is a British, plant-based brand that produces organic milks and juices. Its founder claims that Plenish is “one of the very few brands where integrity is one of the values written on the wall,” but we don’t just have to take her word for it:
In 2019, Plenish was accused of greenwashing in one of their ads, but after an investigation, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority ruled that it wasn’t.
In 2020, Plenish became a certified B-Corp, meeting the B-Lab’s high social/environmental performance, accountability and transparency standards.
That same year, Plenish became the first UK plant-based drink brand to be certified “carbon negative” by the UN Climate Neutral Now Initiative.
Plenish is rated 91/100 as an ethical plant-based milk brand by The Good Shopping Guide, a leading authority on the ethical comparisons of brands.
Therefore, I was confident that if Plenish were to tackle the topic of greenwashing in a promotional campaign, the brand would be able to withstand public scrutiny of its environmental impact and gain the trust of eco-conscious consumers.
Campaign Stage 1: Consumers are invited to have their say on shopping sustainably and greenwashing at in-store polls.
Campaign Stage 2: The results of the polls are published online.
Campaign Stage 3: Plenish’s founder hosts a live Q&A session with consumers about the brand’s environmental impact.
Inspiration: Urban Plunge: New Designs for Natural Swimming in our Cities, Roca Galleries (London and Barcelona), 2014–2016.
Inspiration: The Ecology Center, Orange County, California, 2017.
Inspiration: Ballot Bin, 2015–present.
Inspiration: The Big Lockup: Mass Incarceration in the U.S., Alcatraz Island, 2021–present.
Inspiration: Stefan Sagmeister: The Happy Show, MOCA Los Angeles, 2013.
There are six questions/poll installations, one for each of Plenish's plant-based milks.
Initial poll installation sketches. The bottle/carton caps could be acquired from organisations such as Precious Plastic Dublin, which collect them for recycling.
Final poll installation sketch. Each installation would be on a plinth next to a promotional sample stand for one of Plenish's milks.
Poll installation mockups.
