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THE CONTEST

Along with our allies at Global Exchange, Green America and Oasis USA, we are sponsoring a "brand jamming" contest, for you to create advertisements that reveal the reality behind Hershey chocolate products.

While Hershey's commercials, print advertisements and brand slogans emphasize joy and happiness, farmers in West Africa who produce the majority of the world's cocoa continue to live in poverty. The cocoa industry has been plagued for years by abusive child labor, forced labor and trafficking. Currently, Hershey lags behind its competitors in sourcing cocoa that has been certified by independent, third parties to meet international labor rights standards. (Check out our report on Hershey for more background.)

Use your creativity to call attention to the abuses in the cocoa industry and to encourage Hershey to raise the bar for responsible cocoa sourcing!

Create a clever mock tagline, mock print ad, or mock commercial video for Hershey that doesn't sugar-coat (no pun intended) the truth. E-mail your submissions to tim.newman[at]ilrf.org by April 10th. Five entries in each category will be selected as finalists, and we'll run a public vote for the winners during mid-April.

THE PRIZES

NEW! One overall contest winner will receive a grand prize of $1,000!

One grand-prize winner from each category will receive a Global Exchange Fair Trade "chocolate lovers" gift basket.

First runners-up in each category will receive a Green America T-shirt, and four free tickets to a 2011 Green Festival in a city of your choice.

All submissions will receive a 10-percent coupon for the Global Exchange online Fair Trade store.

 

OFFICIAL RULES

The “Raise the Bar, Hershey!” Brand Jamming contest will launch February 24, 2011 and close on April 10, 2011. All submissions received between February 24 and April 10, 2011 will be eligible to win.

This contest has three separate categories: mock tagline, mock ad (print),and mock commercial (video). One overall contest winner (who could have submitted any entry in any of the three categories) will receive a grand prize of $1,000. All categories will have one winner, who will each receive a grand prize. All submissions will win a 10-percent off coupon to the Global Exchange online Fair Trade store.

Additionally, all submissions will be eligible for use as promotional materials as part of the “Raise the Bar, Hershey!” campaign. After the submission period closes there will be a period of time that is open to vote on top submissions in each category. The three lead organizations of the “Raise the Bar, Hershey!” campaign (Global Exchange, Green America, and International Labor Rights Forum) will take the public vote tallies into consideration to determine the winner in each category. Winners will be announced by the end of April.

For your imagination:

To get your creative juices flowing, here a just a few examples of current and classic Hershey advertisements that are ripe for mocking. Please do not feel limited to use these ads as inspiration. More examples can be found online and on Hershey's website.

1. Vintage Hershey Kiss advertisement;

2. Vintage chocolate syrup advertisement;

3. Vintage Hershey bar advertisement.

 

Brand-jam examples:

1. The Chevron Campaign’s brand jamming ads here are a response to this ad campaign and others by Chevron. Additional Chevron Campaign brand jamming ads can be viewed here.

2. Global Exchange’s anti-sweatshop campaign ads here and here spoof a nearly identical set of print ads by The Gap.

3. Adbusters.org (Some images may not be appropriate for young children.)