GTB Winter 2024 Member Meeting Recap
Green The Bid’s Winter 2024 Member Meeting welcomed guest speaker Thomas Kolster to talk to members about cultivating a new vision of sustainable advertising. Thomas is the founder of The Goodvertising Agency and has dedicated his work to examining how advertisers have grappled with sustainability messaging. The meeting included his insightful presentation followed by a lively and engaging Q&A with the attending members from the GTB community.
Thomas began his journey within the industry as a copywriter from Denmark, a notable country as an epicenter for summits surrounding climate change and sustainability. He began talking to creatives around the world, but did not see storytelling at the level it should be at, especially noting that brands had a proclivity to pitch hero narratives, which to him jeopardized the movement. He asked himself: how do we tell amazing stories about sustainable living? From this starting point, he wrote his book which reframes what kind of story-telling is needed in our moment of environmental reformation, and presents the path for where he believes this industry should go. For Thomas, the sustainably-sound path for advertising includes putting competition aside, avoiding the “Hero Trap,” showcasing new stories, and making the dialogue for improvement open to all. Starting with an inclusive ethic of care is the basis of all successful work toward a livable world for people and the planet. Here is an excerpt from the discussion:
To start, Thomas noted, we need “To be really honest with ourselves. I think it's very important that we don't alienate people. In the U.S. right now there is a very divisive commercial rhetoric, which I never really understood, because for me, sustainability is not about being exclusive. I think one of the most activist things you can do is to be inclusive. I think there is a lot we can do in telling different narratives, really challenging the sustainability stories out there and not running into this doom and gloom trap that we see so much.”
“Brands obviously need to do what they can internally in terms of lowering their footprints, but at the end of the day, it needs to be a shared journey. It's a journey you take together (as brand and consumer). We should create brands that add to people's lives; that help us become better versions of ourselves.”
When it comes to strong messages about the environment, he suggests, “We aren’t messing the planet up, we're messing ourselves up. How do we get that to resonate with the consumer? It's not about the planet, it's about what we're doing to each other and ourselves. In the U.S. it's heartbreaking to see that climate has been politicized. It's up to us as advertisers and storytellers not to fall into that trap and divide people, but actually try to find those stories that bring us together rather than separate us.”
Thomas also noted, “My advice to brands is to avoid being perfect, to avoid being a hero. If you're honest about the change, if you're honest about the challenge, it's a lot easier. It's honesty and building brands that are human; building brands that are allies is the best weapon against a lot of the greenwashing and all of the backlash that we're seeing right now.”
From our insightful conversation with Thomas, we can begin to see how the reconstruction of our advertising narratives and practices can significantly impact our progress toward sustainability. By encouraging less divisive storytelling, embedding subtle messaging, and elevating new voices and narratives, there is a sustainable future for the advertising world.
