No Hiding This Light

SunChips is taking baby steps toward becoming environmentally accountable. Their new campaign is based on these steps from reducing the energy that is required to make their chips to designing a fully compostable bag they are demonstrating their solar power.


In a recent New York Times article entitled Trumpeting a Move to Put the Sun in SunChips by Stuart Elliot this campaign is described as being part of the greenwashing movement in marketing. Everyone wants their brand to be associated with being environmentally conscious.

"The new SunChips advertising initiative is centered on the addition of solar power to the Frito-Lay plant in Modesto, Calif., that makes SunChips. A 10-acre “farm” of solar collectors is being added, to provide up to 75 percent of the energy needed to produce the product.

The plant, one of seven in the United States that make SunChips, is scheduled to start using solar power on Earth Day, April 22, as part of ambitious efforts by Frito-Lay and PepsiCo to convince consumers that the companies care about the environment(Elliot)."

Although there seems to be some skepticism about why corporations are suddenly jumping on the "green" bandwagon it must be acknowledged that whatever the motives the new eco-friendly corporate world is making steps in the right direction.

I for one love the concept of the new campaign. They feature girls and women frolicking in the sun as an announcer invites viewers to “imagine capturing the sun’s power and making chips with it.” The spots end with the words “SunChips, now made with solar energy,” and the brand’s theme, “Live brightly.” In many eco-conscious campaigns the company spends more advertising their efforts then actually making changes. However in this case the multimillion dollar investment in solar energy actually exceeded the SunChips advertising budget. Overall I musts say that living brightly never looked so good.

Here's a link to a sample tv ad in this new campaign http://www.sunchips.com /advertising_television.shtml