Coca-cola, advocating!

I was going to a meeting today in a different part of Manila when our driver pointed out a new billboard along EDSA - one of the major (and most congested and therefore most polluted) roads in the city. It was a billboard sponsored by Coca-cola, white and green, with an outline of the iconic Coca-cola bottle. Nothing unusual there - but upon closer look, this billboard was co-sponsored by the World Wide Fund for Nature - or the World Wildlife Fund as we still know it in the US. And turns out, the green parts of the billboard were actually made with plants, not paint. Across the middle of it, read "This billboard absorbs air pollution."

Greenwashing? Sure. Interesting? Yes, also. I'm not sure it's a great piece of advocacy, since I'm not sure what action follows, but it obviously (as proven by my driver pointing it out to me) is a point of conversation for people. Getting people talking about pollution is better than not, isn't it? How many kudos does Coca-cola deserve for doing this though?

Check out a local blog entry (and pictures of the billboard) here.