Domino's needs to fire their marketing people

Domino's' marketers target the wrong people with their latest press release. Or do they?

Fri, Jul 10 2009 at 9:59 AM

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Greenwashing

I got a press release yesterday that made me laugh. Not since I received a press release about an organic bottled water company that celebrates their water one PET bottle at a time (read my thoughts on that, here), have I marveled at the stupidity of a marketing department’s targeted choices.

By now, you’ve heard the term greenwashing, right? Basically, it’s a spin on the term whitewashing -- trying to make something seem better, more positive, and shinier than it really is. Greenwashing is trying to make something look greener than it is.

Domino's sent out a press release about “an environmentally friendly” way they are advertising called GreenGraffiti. It seems to me this entire campaign is a textbook definition of greenwashing -- literally.

“GreenGraffiti cleans part of the sidewalk and leaves ads behind,” said Tim McIntyre, spokesperson for Domino’s Pizza. “At first glance, it appears that something’s been painted onto the sidewalks. In reality, we’re just removing dirt and leaving ads behind. Domino’s is one of the first companies to use GreenGraffiti in the U.S. and has added the unique twist of an old-fashioned scavenger hunt for our consumers to have a little fun.”

Here’s how this “environmentally friendly” campaign works.

Domino’s uses a bunch of water to write GreenGraffiti on major city streets, but really only cleans a small portion that ends up forming the shape of their logo and the words Domino's American Legends. The rest of the sidewalk is left dirty.
People find these logos, take a picture, and send the picture to Domino's for a free $15 gift card to use on certain products. They are giving away a whopping 250 of these coupons!
Domino's hopes that Americans think its company is green because it uses a process that has the word green in it while writing the word American on the sidewalk.

The pizzas they are advertising, the American Legends, are pizzas that are neither being advertised as healthier nor are they using ingredients that have been changed to be better for the environment. So there’s nothing green there.

The GreenGraffiti may not use paint, but it uses a lot of water to clean a very small part of a sidewalk, so there really isn’t anything green there.

There is nothing about this campaign that is going to help the environment. The fact that Domino's is trying to pass it off as if it does help the environment is insulting. When I feel insulted by a company I stop spending my dollars there. I also explain to other people why I feel insulted.

Whose bright idea was it to send this press release to green bloggers? Did the marketing department think we would applaud this? Perhaps they didn’t. The press release says it’s an “environmentally friendly” AND “potentially controversial” new marketing campaign.

At first read, I thought the potential controversy would be about the graffiti and the writing on the streets. But, perhaps not. Perhaps the company is hoping to create controversy within the green media. Maybe I and the many other environmental writers who are writing about this today are doing exactly what Domino's' marketers want us to do.

If pointing out how a company is blatantly greenwashing will help that company, someone please explain to me how that works.

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Comments: 5

Jim Bowes Sep 20 2009 at 5:03 AM

GreenGraffiti® is a company trying to offer a more responsible alternative to traditional out of home advertising. We are not perfect but we are working to improve everyday. All comments are welcome and we hope that you would have some ideas as to how we could improve our processes. Water is precious! Yet water is a core part of our business which is why we are one of the first companies in the world to offset our water footprint. Here is an interesting fact that we feel should be considered in

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the discussion. An average GreenGraffiti® takes about 15 liters of water to produce. A poster of the same size will require almost 35 times more water to just to produce the piece of paper it is printed on. This means that the Dominos campaign saved nearly 70,000 liters of water. It is not perfect but we see this a a step in the right direction. Jim Bowes Founder GreenGraffiti®

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Guest Jul 22 2009 at 11:09 AM

I don't think they're trying to say that cleaning the sidewalk is green -- if that's the message from the press release, you're right, their marketing people need to be fired. More like, this is a greener form of advertising than something using paint, paper, or anything else that traditional advertising uses. And re the use of water: According to GreenGrafitti.com, "We make use of a symbolic Water Neutrality formula: it is impossible to actually create new water, but you can create access to clean

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drinking water in water scarce areas and in vulnerable communities. So this is exactly what we do... For every liter of water we use, we make sure that at least one liter is created where people need it the most." PS - I'm not affiliated with either company! I just stumbled on this and it seemed a little reactionary. I do agree that the concept is gimmicky, but it's certainly better than spray painting the same ads onto the sidewalk!