Selling Sustainability for the Holidays

Selling sustainable behavior during the holidays may not be a good idea, but there might be lessons to be learned by using the holidays. Valentine's Day is today, so it will make a good illustration of what I am getting at.

Assume you want to convince people to stop eating meat, as a sustainability thing, not just as a question of promoting animal rights. How could the holidays be used to help achieve that goal? A holiday-themed ad campaign might work. Indeed, such campaigns are run in November in the run up to Thanksgiving Day.

I would not recommend using Valentine's Day to convince people to go vegan. What possible connection is there between the two?

Well, why not force a connection or two. You might get a new idea for promoting veganism. Here is how it works:

1. Ask yourself how celebrating Valentine's Day is like selling a lifestyle change (or just use veganism instead).
2. Spend a few minutes writing down everything you associate with Valentine's Day. Record every characteristic, idea, activity, et cetera.
3. Spend a few minutes looking at each of those things and see what prompts an idea for an advertising slogan, a product, a service, or anything else for that matter! Don't forget to write everything down.

And if you come up with a workable idea, you owe me some candy!

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