The Sun is Now Greener!

by erica ~ July 15, 2008

The new ads from Sun Chips claim that they are yet another brand that’s going green. In fact, Sun Chips has boosted their efforts in environmental causes by recently adding solar energy to its plant in Modesto, CA.

“We are living up to our name,” they claim in a recent Earth Day ad, which was when the opening of the plant was announced, according to this Brandweek article.  Sun Chips is combining a number of the recent health and environmental trends into their product. With the help of the sun to produce the packages and the18 grams of whole grain, low sodium and no trans-fat chips, Sun Chips is slowly making ‘green’ progress.

“One thing also learned about green brands and believe very much is that the brands that are most successful in speaking about green make it core to their business strategy. It’s not something you can treat as a consumer promotion and do it for three months and move to the next promotion,” says Frito-Lay VP-marketing, Gannon Jones.

Besides greener packing and a healthy product, Sun Chips is also involved in rebuilding the town of Greensburg, Kansas. It was hit last year with the highest scale of tornado in a town of 1,500 people. It destroyed 95% of the town. Greensburg is being built in an eco-friendly way and is being envisioned to be a model of sustainability for the U.S. and the world. This town is also getting help from the Discovery channel and Leonardo DiCaprio, who are filming a series that documents the rebuilding of the town.

Sun Chips is still trying to penetrate their brand to new consumers since they claim that not everyone has heard about them yet. I’ve definitely heard about them but I wasn’t aware of their new green strategies. I think they are sending a great message to their consumers, especially in these rough times.

Erica Berkovich is an Associate Account Executive at Mediashop PR. She is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Corporate Communications at Baruch.