Brands, bæredygtighed og forbrugeradfærd

Can brands make consumers see sustainable behaviour as desirable?

Well, with one campaign (and a pig in an armpit) they managed to change the routines of Russian women

Sylvia Rowley for the Guardian Professional Network

Wed 5 Oct 2011 16.00 BSTFirst published on Wed 5 Oct 2011 16.00 BST

Women: do your armpits smell like this? Photograph: Christian Charisius/REUTERS

Spritz – spray

Armpit – underarm

Resultant – resulting

Influenced – affected

Burgeoning – budding/growing

Honed - refined

Aspirational –

Something to live up to

In Russia, in 2007, most women used deodorant only on special occasions. They would spritz their armpits with the sweet-smelling stuff to party, but not every day. As a result, Russians got through less than one pack of deodorant each per year, compared with five in the UK. For obvious reasons, this was not a habit that pleased Russian deodorant brand Rexona or its makers Unilever, so they set about changing it.

To do this they enlisted the help of cultural analyst Greg Rowland, who identified some key cultural themes in Russia to draw on, including "an obsession with glamour and beauty" and "a culture of embarrassment". In the resultant advert, a seemingly glamorous woman raises her arm in a lift only to find – to her horror – that the smell makes the guy next to her dash for the exit. In case the viewer doesn't get it, there's also a drawing of a pig on her underarm. The advert helped significantly increase deodorant use in Russia, says Jaroslav Cir, who also worked on the campaign.