CAN SODA AND ONLINE VOTING HELP CHANGE THE WORLD?

Jen_Changents on January 20, 2010 - 12:10pm | 3 Comments

Pepsi thinks they can change the world with the help of Change Agents across the globe. I agree.

Instead of dumping $20 million into a couple thirty-second ads, they launched the Pepsi Refresh Campaign and are giving the money to the global community to support projects to make our world healthier, greener, smarter and better (all you Change Agents reading this--please sign up your projects because you can get funding!!!).

This campaign will connect Pepsi to the issues Change Agents and their followers care about. It looks like a win-win deal. We'll see how it plays out. Individuals with fresh ideas to solve the world's most seemingly intractable problems can win money to start new projects or keep their projects going.

What's Pepsi's horse in this race? It will earn credible clout in the environmental and social space. By association, and because they are supporting the projects, they will have the opportunity to take on the characteristics of many of the world’s most exciting problem-solvers.

Our hope is that Pepsi’s campaign will help Change Agents raise awareness for their projects while building and growing a movement for their work around their world. Perhaps Pepsi's help to get them started will cause a ripple effect of resources and people who will get involved and support those funded.

The biggest benefit I see from the project, beside the projects themselves, is the ability to grow momentum as these Change Agents tell their stories from the front lines with people across the globe. Digital story-telling and support-building tools are perfect for this kind of initiative, but it is unclear whether Pepsi plans to harness this power. The ability for Pepsi to help these Change Agents broadcast their stories across the social graph has the potential to inspire a chain reaction of projects by others around the globe. We'd certainly love to help in this regard :)

Larger-than-life personalities, breathtaking stories, exciting locations, real impact. Beyond the funding, that's what Pepsi Refresh should bring to this project!

 

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Ned Hamson
January 20, 2010 - 5:39pm
Hope you are right about Pepsi's intent and that when a Changent talks about soda cans and bottles littering the landscape or supports campaigns to require can and bottle deposits to support recycling that their support does not include leaning on folks to give them a break. Pepsi is a good company and I hope this works but other big companies use such support to "earn" themselves a pass or give them clout to hush dissent.
RachelKenya
January 21, 2010 - 9:57am
Jen: As always thank you for posting relevant stories and resources for us. I am a much bigger fan of Pepsi than Coke whose brand in Sudan is owned by Omar al-Bashir's brother. Because it is a subsidiary independently owned, the company doesn't have to comment about Sudan's human rights issues or their profit margins in the region. So go PEPSI! At least they are spreading the wealth because there are so many good causes and potential spokespeople to work with.
Jen_Changents
January 21, 2010 - 1:05pm
Totally, I am hoping for the best. Regardless how they do things corporately (which I hope is always doing the right thing and making sure they are being ethical), they are doing something better than having commercials. They are giving the money to the people rather than an ad agency, which is automatically better in my book. I hope this is the beginning of a trend in all of the global corporate world. e.g. projects by American Express, Liberty Mutual, etc.
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