Sustainability & storytelling - The Woolmark Company
This campaign stopped me in my tracks - and that doesn't happen very often. Here's what makes it such a stand out piece of story telling and some notes on what other brands can learn from this.
Sustainability and fashion shouldn’t really exist in the same sentence, but they do, mostly in the form of greenwashing campaigns proclaiming false truths (yes, I'm looking at you fast fashion). There’s so much noise when it comes to sustainable fashion, but not much is actually being said – when a brand talks factually and honestly about the cold hard truth, people listen.
This month, The Woolmark Company launched its latest campaign, making a stance against synthetic clothing. The campaign featured a swimming pool rapidly filling with crude oil, in reference to a statistic that every 25 minutes, an Olympic-sized swimming pool’s worth of crude oil is used to produce polyester garments (published by Ellen MacArthur Foundation). The inference being that by wearing synthetic clothing, you’re wearing crude oil.
Wear Wool, Not Fossil Fuel, The Woolmark Company
What makes this campaign so successful?
They talk about sustainability without using the actual word (which has lost any real significance in recent years), instead, they present consumers with the facts to help them land on the conclusion themselves. Is polyester contributing to environmental degradation? Yes. Do Woolmark use polyester? Absolutely not, quite the opposite.
The visual production of the campaign is smart too, it pitches the good against the bad, darkness against light, chaotic against calm, synthetic against natural. Their clever use of motion graphics help to create a feeling of urgency, like we’re being suffocated by crude oil, before presenting an alternative choice, a way out. They present a problem, and offer (somewhat of) a solution.
No fashion brand can claim to be squeaky clean, Woolmark included. But they aren’t trying to be, this campaign simply lays down the facts rather than embellishing them; and that’s what makes it so good.
Wear Wool, Not Fossil Fuel, The Woolmark Company
What does the success of this campaign teach us?
Be honest with your storytelling, stick to the facts and stay away from embellishing the truth. Keep in mind that one dimensional imagery sometimes just isn’t enough, motion can make magic. Finally, timing is everything. This campaign launched in the midst of New York Fashion Week, a time when people are already thinking a lot about what they’re wearing; Woolmark leveraged off of this while adding something different to the dialogue. It’s smart, shocking, and gets people talking.
Woolmark enlisted the help of film directors Sil van der Woerd and Jorik Dozy from production company Park Village, to work alongside ad agency 20something to bring their vision to life. Other team members include creative director Will Thacker and executive producer Adam Booth.
Sustainability manager Emma Gittoes and the rest of Woolmark are making waves.
