While many brands were gearing up for a productive sale season over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, offering promotions including discounts and gifts with purchase, Patagonia took a stance against the sales rush. The outdoor apparel brand is know for its sustainable practices, and has boycotted Black Friday before, arguing that increased consumer spending during sales causes unnecessary waste and a large carbon footprint due to increased shipping of products.
This year, Patagonia released a poem via a newspaper ad to express their viewpoint, which soon went viral on Twitter. The poem was very clever from a marketing standpoint because of its creative simplicity. Read top to bottom, the poem sounds like a defeatist resignation, giving into the unavoidability of the climate crisis. However, once you get to the end of the poem it prompts you to read it again bottom to top, and this time it is a declaration of hope and call to action. The poem follows in the footsteps of Patagonia's 2011 ad "Don't buy this jacket". Instead of contributing to the noise and excess around Black Friday, which results in unnecessary waste that is harmful to the planet, Patagonia is using it's voice to inspire change.
The ad is especially powerful because it is doing the opposite of what most other brands are doing, it is asking you NOT to consume. This creativity and uniqueness caused it to trend on multiple social media channels, further spreading the brand's message. Patagonia is sacrificing Black Friday revenue to stay true to it's principles, which in the long run makes people even more loyal to the brand.
To read more, see: https://www.fastcompany.com/90580854/patagonias-palindrome-poem-ad-is-a-check-on-runaway-black-friday-cyber-monday-spending
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