Advertisements often have the power to persuade and sell an ideal image to consumers. In a similar manner, “green” advertising seeks to convince consumers of a product’s health and environmental benefits.
I looked at an advertisement from Peace Coffee. Peace Coffee is an importer and roaster of fair trade coffee beans based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On their website the company states that they are “a cultural, social, and consumable revolution, with grounds firmly fixed in a farmer-friendly, fair trade reality.”
Peace Coffee promotes the fact that they only sell one-hundred percent fair trade coffee beans, all of which are roasted at their facility in Minneapolis. The emphasis on a fresh product produced with equitable labor practices is a common theme throughout all of Peace Coffee’s publications.
The advertisement that I looked is a print advertisement that was featured in newspapers and magazines circulated within the Twin Cities, as well as in poster form throughout the Twin Cities. The advertisement was designed my Miss Amy Jo, a graphic artist based in Minneapolis.
The target audience of this advertisement is middle-class consumers who live within the greater Twin Cities metro area who wish to make a difference through the products they purchase. The typical purchaser of Peace Coffee is concerned about environmental sustainability, fair labor practices, and is willing to pay a premium price for a fresh product.
The general ambience of the advertisement is that graphics and aesthetics are of primary importance, and conveying basic information about Peace Coffee is secondary. It attempts to convey the philosophy of the company without overwhelming the viewer with text and information.
The primary focus of the advertisement is a large logo in the center of the canvas. A red sun-burst pattern draws the viewer’s attention to the coffee cup with a bicycle logo on it. The bicycle is symbolic of Peace Coffee’s commitment to environmentally sustainable forms of delivery. The company utilizes bicycle riders to deliver some of its products, and for further distances uses vehicles fueled with biodiesel.
The blue circle, red sun-burst, and coffee cup with a bicycle logo work together to project the image of Peace Coffee as a bean of hope with regards to environmental sustainability and fair labor practices. This logo is the most memorable component of the advertisement, and carries substantially more visual weight than the type at the bottom of the advertisement.
There is very little written material in this advertisement of Peace Coffee. The bottom fifth of the poster contains a type block which features “Peace Coffee” in large black block letters, with www.peacecoffee.com and “100% Fair Trade Coffee” in red lettering on either side of Peace Coffee’s logo. The bottom line of the text block reads “Minneapolis, Minnesota”.
The typeface is a block, sans serif font. The choice of a nondescript font allows the message to stand on its own, without additional messages conveyed through typeface attached to it.
This sparse amount of text conveys very important messages. First of all, it establishes Peace Coffee’s philosophy of only selling one-hundred percent fair trade coffee beans. Secondly, the text establishes the Peace Coffee is a local company, in an attempt to attract consumers who attempt to buy locally.
There are no models or photographs featured in this ad, which allows the consumer the chance to form their own image of what an environmentally conscious consumer looks like. The bicycle is the main image in the advertisement as far as conveying a message.
The advertisement does not clutter the canvas with images, but rather chooses carefully what will be included and how much space they will occupy relative to the entire canvas. The background is a beige color, and does not detract from the bright red and blue of the central logo.
Coffee is a central part of American culture; millions of Americans have their daily cup of coffee every morning. This advertisement attempts to convey that Peace Coffee has an uncommon way of doing business with a very common product.
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