As January brings our yearly dose of healthy, active and wellbeing messages, the new decade adds a layer of corporate responsibility and continued sustainability…

Dry January

BrewDog starts the year with a statement of intent, putting on their ‘AF’ fest in Old Street, catering to consumers’ changing habits. At the one-day festival on 11 January, there will be a programme of talks, tutored tasting sessions and a chance for visitors to meet the brewers and producers of alcohol-free beers and spirits. BrewDog said it wanted to prove that “alcohol-free does not equate to taste-free”. Alcohol will not be available at the free ticketed event.

Heineken recently released a special 31-pack of non-alcoholic beer, one for each day of the month. As they’re also low in calories, it’s a nice healthy spin on the traditional advent calendar.

SodaStream have been recently highlighting the eco-friendly nature of their product. During January, as well as sharing their own custom no-alcohol recipes, they have also been tweeting about how using a SodaStream to create your own soft drinks means less plastic waste and more customisation.

Healthy eating

Likely inspired by the success of Greggs’ vegan sausage roll, more household brands have jumped on the vegan and meat-free train. Heinz have tweaked their slogan to ‘Beanz Meanz Vegan’ for a month-long campaign that links to ‘Veganuary’. A limited-edition range of tins will simultaneously promote the brand and the veganism movement.

PETA have used this time of year to encourage people to go vegan by taking over a London Tube station with adverts in Clapham with, “I’m ME, Not MEAT.” slogan.

Asda have an amusing ad underlining that you don’t need to compromise on taste by eating a plant-based diet. Equally Frankie & Benny’s have capitalised on the ‘celebrity vs marketing idiot’ approach by using Meat Loaf in their latest spot. It doesn’t take a genius to work out what the suggested ‘rebrand’ of him is called…

Health & wellbeing

‘Wellbeing’ is a growing industry for retailers and brands and things have ramped up this January with products, advice and technology all being used to tap into this market of trying to make us all feel better inside and out.

M&S have launched ‘Goodmove’ – a range of activewear ‘made for the modern mover’, underlined by a TV ad. Boots have collaborated with Public Health England to launch their Reboot quiz – a way of getting people to understand more about their health and habits underlined by a out-of-home campaign and in-store promotion (which we were proud to be part of).

The Stylist have an in-depth interview with a sleep expert that gives interesting tips on how to get a better night’s snooze. On a more innovative front, wearable and household anti-fatigue products are starting to give consumers the opportunity to boost their energy levels and physical abilities in a way that makes their day-to-day duties easier to deal with.

Sustainability and responsibility

Big brands are starting to realise that they need to make big statements and act on their own corporate responsibilities. Vogue has taken the step of using the January edition of Vogue Italia to highlight the environmental impact of fashion photoshoots by not featuring any photoshoots – a first in the fashion magazine’s history. They commissioned eight illustrated covers by artists who produced their work without travelling or shipping clothes. The money saved in the production of the issue will go towards financing the restoration of the Fondazione Querini Stampalia historic house, severely damaged by recent floods.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is asking potential customers whether they really need to take a flight. A new initiative launched last month asks passengers to consider whether their journey would be better undertaken by train. Travellers are also invited to travel light, to offset flight-related CO2 emissions. Part of KLM’s Fly Responsibly campaign, the initiative invites other airlines to become partners in its Corporate BioFuel Programme, paying a fee to cover the difference in costs between kerosene and sustainable fuel.

The New York Times and National Geographic have both looked to their past to try and rectify questionable parts of their history rather than just whitewashing them. The New York Times’ famous obituary column has ‘been dominated by white men’. They are now adding to these with a more diverse selection of remarkable men and women under their ‘Overlooked’ campaign.

National Geographic are even more forthcoming, stating plainly that “for decades, our coverage was racist…”. Using a preeminent historian to investigate their coverage of black and minority ethnic people in America and abroad, it forms the basis of a detailed article and part of their ‘Race’ edition of the magazine, showing a rare form of honesty and maturity rarely seen in big brands.

Finally, back home in London, three new ‘City Trees’, a series of CO2-filtering structures have just been installed in Leytonstone. These are actually towers filled with different types of moss, which eat up particulates and nitrogen oxides while simultaneously producing oxygen. The City Trees include their own irrigation and energy systems that allows them to operate whatever the weather, and also collect data about the surrounding environment, which can then be used to inform further green solutions. The result is each ‘tree’ has the air-cleaning capability of 275 regular trees, and they don’t look too bad either.

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