Fairtrade Foundation and C4 launch first Fairtrade ad break

Channel 4 has partnered with The Fairtrade Foundation to air an ad break dedicated to Fairtrade, to support Fairtrade Fortnight, which launches today.

Fairtrade Fortnight

The commercial break will be introduced by Channel 4 at 8.15 on Thursday (25 February) during ’My Dream Farm’ with the announcement: “It’s Fairtrade Fortnight, and now on 4, a special commercial break, helping dream farms everywhere”.

It will be followed by ads exclusively for Fairtrade Products such as Cadbury, Starbucks, The Co-Op and a 30-second version of the “The Big Swap” ad.

The Fairtrade Fortnight campaign was created by The Fairtrade Foundation to encourage consumers to swap everyday items for Fairtrade counterparts.

The two-week campaign hopes to make more than 1 million “swaps” of items such as tea, cotton, and bananas.

Wieden & Kennedy London has created a campaign support the “Big Swap” initiative.

The digital campaign includes a “swap-o-meter” where consumers can register their swaps and see the 1 million target being reached, an online film about The Big Swap and radio spots on Spotify.

W&K have also created a window installation on London’s Hanbury Street, where passers-by can “swap their usual head” for a Fairtrade chocolate head and have themselves photographed to enter a competition have their heads cast in Divine Fairtrade chocolate by Parisian chocolatiers Véronique Lorne and Sophie Offerstein.

There is also an in-store campaign, created by W&K, which sees promotional Fairtrade coasters in Starbucks, table-top material in John Lewis cafes and Fairtrade stickers that will appear on banana bags in supermarkets around the UK.

Tesco has today expanded is range of Fairtrade cotton clothing and introduced Fairtrade cotton knitwear.

Oxfam is also pledging to swap a box of 40 Cafédirect Fairtrade tea bags with anyone donating a bag of quality items to an Oxfam store during The Big Swap.

In the past week, Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream brand owned by Unilever, announced it would switch all ingredients to Fairtrade by 2013. Cadbury released a covers album, recorded by popstar Paolo Nutini and The Big Ghana Band, celebrating Fairtrade Fortnight.

Men’s skincare brand Bulldog launched a Fairtrade range, The Co-operative extended its Fairtrade ranges into Somerfield stores and Sainsbury’s announced it has become the world’s biggest retailer of Fairtrade products.