Coca-Cola North America wants everyone to join “fins” in a new Facebook campaign to raise awareness of Earth Month and help support Ocean Conservancy, the nation’s oldest and largest marine conservation organization. Through a new Facebook application, users can “oceanize” themselves into a playful underwater photo. For every person who dives into this new app, Coca-Cola will donate $1, up to a total of $200,000, to support Ocean Conservancy’s marine debris program identifying policies and solutions to preventing trash from reaching our ocean and waterways.
Also, through the Company’s MyCokeRewards points program and a direct donation-matching program through LivePositively.com, Coca-Cola will contribute up to an additional $50,000.
It’s time to close the loop – from product design to disposal, we all have a role to play in keeping our oceans, lakes and rivers free from the dangers of marine debris,” said Vikki Spruill, President and CEO of Ocean Conservancy. “For the past 15 years, Coca-Cola has been an instrumental part of our work, engaging people from all around the world to do their part for the health and resiliency of our oceans and waterways. Through this social media effort, we can further increase awareness of the urgent need to clean up the environment, raise funds to support our efforts and urge everyone to give back to the ocean that gives us so much.”
Facebook users will be able to use this new application by visiting www.livepositively.com/joinfins to create fun underwater images, share and embed them within their own profile pages, and also share them via the site’s status update newsfeed. The “oceanized” images can be saved to a “Let’s All Join Fins” photo album, which ultimately can be shared with Facebook friends.
The company also will launch a print and online effort to complement the Facebook program. The campaign reminds people that “71% of the Earth’s surface is ocean. Shouldn’t 100% of it be clean?” The new advertisements invite consumers to support the cause by donating their time, money or MyCokeRewards points to Ocean Conservancy and lets them know that Coca-Cola will honor their commitment with a contribution.
Since 1995, The Coca-Cola Company has supported Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup (ICC), the world’s largest one-day volunteer event on behalf of clean oceans and waterways. In 2008, Coca-Cola launched a multi-year partnership with Ocean Conservancy through a $1 million pledge to support the ICC. That same year, nearly 50,000 Coca-Cola system associates, their friends and families in 35 markets around the world participated in the ICC, and in the United States, system employees contributed nearly 25,000 hours of volunteer time in the Cleanup.
