The Greenpeace legacy beer mat

The Greenpeace legacy beer mat, front and back

A note from Natasha Van Bentum, formerly head of legacies for Greenpeace Canada.

Hi Carolina,

I was with Greenpeace Canada running the first-ever legacy program for Greenpeace worldwide when the Greenpeace Australia office came up with their wonderful slogan. I notice in the blurb on your site you ask for more details. I don't know the name of the person who dreamed up the slogan (it was their agency), but I know the billboard was created for the Sydney Gay Pride parade.

I'll ask someone else who is a long-time Greenpeacer who may know the name of the person at the agency and get back to you if I find more details.

I loved it so much I adapted it for use in Canada, but took out the word "bloody" since that was cheeky Australia and they could get away with that term used in everyday speech, but it didn't test well in Canada. So our version read "When You Come Back As A Whale You'll Be Glad You Remembered Greenpeace in Your Will". I used it all the time and even had it printed on the back of my business cards. The interesting thing was, the older the supporter, the funnier they thought it was.

Cheers, Natasha 

Great minds. According to its originator Jeff Steele, former senior VP at ASPCA in New York, the ad above first appeared in 1991. But he can’t remember where the idea for it first came from. As our pic above left appears to come from 1994, Jeff and his colleagues may indeed have first claim to be originator of this fundraising classic. But it was certainly creatively adapted by Greenpeace, particularly with their slightly more direct take on the word ‘awfully’. While applauding Jeff and Co, we think Greenpeace’s initiative is every bit as gifted as conceiving the original idea. It’s a great example of appropriate recycling – what SOFII is all about.

Click on the image above to read the full story.

Great minds really do think alike…We’re delighted that after seeing this exhibit on SOFII, Alex France, managing director of Vitamin X, got in touch to provide more information on how this wonderful slogan was created.
 

This case study appears in these showcases

• The ‘best of the best’ showcase
• Last chance to change the world: legacies (bequests) showcase

More case studies from Greenpeace

• Greenpeace’s optimistic tick-box suggestion: the ‘Stop Thorp’ campaign court case mailing
• Greenpeace UK’s ‘forget it’ pack reactivation mailings
• Greenpeace Frontline: launch of a high level monthly giving scheme
• Greenpeace: the virtual march for whales
• Greenpeace Sweden’s legacy commercials
• Greenpeace Portugal: the unfortunate example of the reversed out coupon
• Greenpeace India: SMS lead generation
• Greenpeace UK’s cycle of renewal and reactivation mailings: the ‘countdown’ and ‘please and thank-you’ packs
• Greenpeace Italia: save the Parmigiano Reggiano from OGM
• Greenpeace International: the reinvention of face-to-face fundraising
• Greenpeace USA newsletter: the origami whale
• Greenpeace Australia Pacific the welcome process
• Greenpeace UK welcome materials, from 1992
• Greenpeace UK’s Rainbow Warrior III thank-you video
• A missão “porta-copos de cerveja” do Greenpeace
• Greenpeace International: la re-invenzione della raccolta fondi face-to-face
• La suggestion optimiste de Greenpeace « cochez la case »: la campagne postale pour l’affaire judiciaire de Thorp.
• Greenpeace International: la réinvention de la collecte de fonds en face à face.
• La casilla optimista de Greenpeace en su campaña ‘Stop Thorp’
• Greenpeace Internacional: la reinvención de la captación cara a cara

SOFII's view

Type of charity:

Target audience:

Country of origin:

Creator/originator:

No idea. But we’d love to know, to pay her or him proper respect.

Name of exhibitor:

Date of first appearance:

Summary/objectives:

The original objectives may well be lost in time. Perhaps someone from Greenpeace Australia can get in touch with SOFII and give us some more details. But we suspect impact may have been high on the aganda.

Background:

The copy concept first appeared on a billboard outside Sydney, Australia. Initially it may just have been a one-off indulgence for such a great copy line. But somebody evidently thought it deserved more. And quite right too.

Special Characteristics:

Unique, instant brilliance

Influence/Impact:

Whenever innovative fundraising is discussed, this promotion is sure to come up soon.

Merits:

Because this piece should be seen and revered by fundraisers everywhere. It was made for a showcase like SOFII, even if it appeared years before SOFII existed.

Other relevant information:

Lessons learned from a legendary campaign
The impact of a great fundraising idea can be surprising. Take this comment from SOFII’s ambassador in Thailand, Hannah Perkins, who works for Greenpeace there:

‘The legacy beermat makes me proud to work for an organisation like Greenpeace. I keep a copy at my desk to remind me that bequest giving is something that I want to kick-start in Thailand...one day... ’.

How about that? Or, consider this comment, sent to SOFII by Charlie Adlum, planned giving manager at Greenpeace Australia:

‘I'll be in touch if I find out any more information but don't hold your breath - seems like it all happened before we began documenting strategy and results electronically. The chances of me finding paper files on the beer mat activity are slim to none. Although, I did hear the following from my colleague who used to do the legacy programme here:

‘It was done long before my time - and while it created lots of interest and won awards and the like it was actually a fizzler for generating bequest responses. We used the same language in a filler ad campaign that worked well for generating enquiries... as good as any other bequest filler ad... the good thing about it was that the papers liked running it in filler space over Christmas because of all the whales talk then (Japanese whale hunt season in the Southern Ocean) and then again in the papers whenever there was a visiting whale to somewhere that was being reported in the local media.’

‘It’s so funny that many people highlight the beer mat slogan as a 'winner', I think it's more appealing to bequest/legacy fundraisers than bequest/legacy prospects!’

This is so often the way with great ideas – they may not work all that well in the format for which they were originally intended. But if this campaign has inspired a generation of legacy fundraisers then it qualifies as great in SOFII’s book, for sure.