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City Harvest: Bushels Beat Hunger in the Big Apple
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City Harvest, whose mission is to fight hunger in New York City, NY, is the only food rescue organization in the world. It links agencies, individuals, corporations, and foundations to unite in fighting NYC’s hunger. City Harvest provides free deliveries of food to nearly 600 emergency food agencies, and feeds 260,000 people suffering from hunger on a weekly basis. Its “Food Council,” made up of top chefs, restaurateurs, and food industry professionals, donate some of the city’s best food and raise funds for the organization.
The PSA City Harvest released raises awareness and interest in helping feed New York City’s hungry. The advertisement is well done in that it attracts the viewer’s attention (which is limited, selective, and divided), by making the issue personally relevant, surprising, concrete, and easy to process. The ad is framed by a realistic interaction by what seems to be a couple, with the man filming the woman with his iPhone (the PSA was actually filmed on the iPhone). They start to board the subway train, but as the doors open, thousands of green apples burst out. A voice informs us that “every day, 470,000 pounds of food is wasted in this city…Help City Harvest rescue food for New York’s hungry.” City Harvest used 500,000 CGI apples in the PSA to illustrate New York City’s daily food waste. By using the framework of a realistic couple in the NYC subway, the PSA is made personally relevant; moreover, it is surprising and unexpected, as the viewer does not expect hundreds of thousands of apples to come pouring out of the train. The green apples are a contrasting stimuli against the gray subway station. The abstract notion of the hunger and of food waste is made concrete with the sheer number of apples and the booming voice, making the message easy to process as well. Finally, the use of apples is fitting due to the association of apples with “The Big Apple,” i.e. New York. This could perhaps prevent the sleeper effect, as well as support the match-up hypothesis, as viewers will readily remember City Harvest, whose symbol is also the apple, and that its mission is to feed the hungry in The Big Apple.
Macy’s: “Come Together” Around the Dinner Table
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Last month, Macy’s launched COME TOGETHER, a novel fundraising campaign that successfully raised enough funds to feed 10 million people suffering from hunger in the United States. In conjunction with FeedingAmerica, it used a multi-platform approach to reaching its goal: people could choose to HOST, GIVE, or SHOP to donate, either in its retail stores or online.
HOST: Across the country, people hosted dinner parties, and instead of bringing the traditional hostess gift, guests were asked to donate to FeedingAmeerica. The hosts could go to www.macys.com/cometogether to get ideas for themes from Martha Stewart, send out invitations, and find recipes from such celebrated chefs as Emeril Lagasse.
GIVE: People could donate $1 at any Macy’s register, which provides dinner for seven, any time they shopped.
SHOP: Food banks across the nation sold $5 tickets that enabled shoppers to get special in-store savings on October 17th, online and in retail stores; a portion of the $5 would benefit FeedingAmerica. Macy’s also hosted nationwide events such as VIP dinner parties with Martha Stewart and Emeril Lagasse to raise awareness and fundraise.
The “Come Together” commercial features a star-studded cast. Both the commercial and the campaign encouraged a return to values such as community, sharing meals at the dinner table, and facilitated simple ways we can give back to the community even as we are buying things for ourselves. I think Macy’s did a wonderful job of taking into account how people are not eating out as much due to the recession, and how they could use this to the advantage of this campaign by inviting people to host at-home dinner parties and donate to those less-fortunate at the same time. The website garners affective involvement from its viewers, as does the song “Come Together,” by the Beatles. The song and the commercial encompass the central message of the campaign: we must come together, whether a celebrity, employee, or anyone, and do our part to be socially responsible; moreover, in keeping with the classical liberalism mindset, it provides incentives to give because it benefits us as well in that as shoppers and hosts, we enjoy quality time with friends and family, throw parties, and shop discounted products at the retail stores. The commercial and website garners attention with the long list of celebrities that appear; for viewers today, they represent a reference group of people who are admired. These stars, such as Usher, Queen Latifah, and Jessica Simpson, are using their fame for good ends by helping Macy’s “Come Together” campaign. Furthermore, it is fitting as these celebrities are all Macy’s “Star” Designers, and the commercial shows them eating at Macy’s with employees of the store (all part of the Macy’s community). There is a clear association with all the elements of the commercial, from the food being offering to the “Star” Designers to the song clearly asking us to come together not only at the dinner table, but as a nation to help one another.
Land’s End Brings Social Responsibility to a Personal Level
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Land’s End, in partnership with the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless (MCH), the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH), and its retailer Sears, has begun an initiative they dubbed “BigBostonWarmUp.” It began in Boston and has spread nationwide. With its goal to provide coats to keep the nation’s homeless warm in the upcoming freezing winter months, especially in Boston, Sears has asked consumers to bring in their lightly-used coats to its Land’s End Shop at Sears. In return, Sears will grant a discount of 20% off any new Land’s End coat purchased by the consumer. The website, available at http://www.bigwarmup.com/, tracks how many coats are donated per store, per state, and how many homeless are in that state. A heart, which is a motif they have used recurrently on the website, is placed next to the store in which most coats have been donated. Once you donate your coat, you can track where it is and where it has finally been donated. The site also provides statistics of the steadily increasing size of the homeless population (11% increase in Boston last year alone), and the fact that most of them are families is very sobering.
The commercial Land’s End Shop at Sears has created to promote its initiative is extremely creative! The commercial begins with a drama–a story unfolds about a mother who gives her son a red, Land’s End coat for Christmas. She sews on his name, and the commercial follows him through milestones in his life: college,, first kiss, marriage, children, moving, etc. Finally, it’s time to dispose of the coat that has been with him his whole life. The next screen shows a homeless man receiving the coat. The incredible twist to this online commercial is that at the end, we see a woman leaving the shelter holding a coat; when she looks down to see the name of the past owner, it’s your name! It ends with: “[Your Name], your gently used coat can help one of our nation’s many homeless people stay warm this coming winter.”
The commercial (featured above) inspires affective involvement from its viewers–it is both touching and surprising in that it really drives the point home that social responsibility is not just a lofty idea, it is a something YOU can do for one another. It makes social responsibility relevant to each consumer, on a personal level, literally by name. This ad demonstrates shared values we strive for in our culture, namely the importance of family, greater social unity, and generosity towards the less fortunate. The drama that opens the ad hooks us in with its relevance to the life of any average American. And that is the point–every average American can make a difference. The company is also uniting altruistic motives with profit-based motives, in that in addition to donating, it also sells it products (new coats) and promotes positive associations of the Land’s End brand. Moreover, it is using social media and optimizing on the current trend of internet advertising and user-generated content. It also targets the disposition of the product in the consumption behavior tripartite model, and reducing the buyer’s perceived risk and hesitation of buying a new coat and having to dispose of the old coat–we are instead recycling and not wasting. Additionally, the music aids in this perfect example of transformational advertising–it is touching, yet simple.
Enjoy the commercial, and have fun sending it to others!! And remember, only 12 more days to donate a coat (the campaign ends in November).
