My roommate Shana and I were talking about branding tonight, and she showed me this video where the corporation Nike uses its branding intuition for social justice. This first video defines The Girl Effect, a Nike Foundation initiative that grants money to organizations that then allocate the funds to grassroots organizations in developing nations. You will not see the Nike symbol in this clip or on the girl effect website (http://www.girleffect.org/), but the initiative is uniquely branded through this ad.



Then Shana showed me this Starbucks ad, which uses the same stylistic technique, promotes civic action and is similarly emotional, but it uses the Starbucks logo and is, in essence, advertising for Starbucks, unlike the Nike foundation.



It is interesting to see how these two corporations applied this emotional tactic with differing goals. Starbucks, while promoting an important social issue, is primarily promoting Starbucks. Whereas, Nike chooses not to include the "swoosh" and instead applies their branding sensibilities to create a new logo/brand which it shares with its six U.S.-based partners who raise money to provide grants for organizations that support adolescent girls in developing countries and do not have the resources to create such a strong brand themselves. Nike first just gave money to these organizations, but then decided to create a brand to make the initiative more sustainable.