Seventh Generation buys first crack at State of the Union response with ad across ABC, CBS, NBC

The State of the Union address has never been a major marketing platform, other than for the president. That might change with tonight’s address by Donald Trump, immediately after which Unilever’s Seven Generation has bought a roadblock on ABC, CBS and NBC for a 60-second ad laying out the brand’s outlook on climate change. The ad from Opinionated, Portland, drives home what Seventh Generation stands for, which is based on an ancient Iroquois philosophy that decisions made today should result in a sustainable world seven generations into the future. It’s unclear what, if anything, Trump will say about climate change in the speech, but Seventh Generation will be first in line for a response. Via WPP’s Mindshare, the brand has bought the time slot between the end of Trump’s speech and before the Democratic response on the three networks. With the buy, Seventh Generation is going for maximum social media and talk value behind the new spot, which it declined to release before airing. “Everything we do, we think about the legacy, the impact for future generations,” says Seventh Generation Chief Marketing Officer Hanneke Willenborg. “But we feel we’ve never really told that story at scale.” Seventh Generation has had double-digit growth in North America in the past year, even as it also expanded globally, according to Unilever. But as a result of rapid growth, it also has a lot of new users who might not be fully versed in what the brand name means. Prior work from MDC Partners’ 72andSunny focused heavily on funny product-focused ads starring Maya Rudolph. Opinionated won the agency-of-record assignment last spring. And Seventh Generation has been increasingly vocal on climate change since, donating its six-figure ad buy for the week of Sept. 16 leading up to the Global Climate Strike to the Youth Climate Movement.

Seventh Generation buys first crack at State of the Union response with ad across ABC, CBS, NBC

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