Why give to charity when you can drink PG tips instead?
Howard Lake | 14 March 2008 | Blogs
Unlike Sainsbury’s borrowing of charities’ fundraising messages, which implied that you could do you bit by buying their free range eggs (see my earlier post – Why give to charity when you can shop at Sainsbury’s instead?), PG Tips’ latest advert goes a lot further by stating explicitly that you can “do your bit” simply by drinking their tea.
PG’s public faces of Al (Johnny Vegas) and Monkey are drinking tea in their kitchen discussing how PG has joined the Rainforest Alliance certification programme. Monkey explains how it will “help the people who pick the tea earn a decent living, have good conditions, and medical care.” (See www.pgtips.co.uk/sustainability/ for more details on how Rainforest Alliance will certify plantations by 2010 from where PG Tips buy their tea, and www.rainforest-alliance.org/programs/agriculture/certified-crops/tea.html for details on Rainforest Alliance’s certification programme.)
Al, however, is perplexed about how the public fit into to this.
Al: How do we do out bit?
Monkey: Keep drinking the delicious brew
Al: That’s it?
Monkey: Yes
Al (sips tea): I’ve just done a little bit
Al (takes another sip): And another.
Al (third sip): Easy, too easy.
Yes, isn’t it just?
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.