Pitching on solar power

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: Madison Avenue has always been a place for sun worshippers, whether it was naming brands like Sun, Sunlight, Sunbird, Sunbeam and Sol; coining slogans like “A day with orange juice is like a day without sunshine”; or sending the Coppertone girl and her dog out on the beach to urge, “Don’t be a paleface”.

The newest demonstration of solar power (figuratively) is coming from the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo, which is using the sun to help transform its SunChips line of multigrain snack chips into a “green” brand. The initiative is centered on the addition of solar power (literally) to the Frito-Lay plant in Modesto, California, that makes SunChips. The plant, one of seven in the US, is scheduled to start using solar power on Earth Day, April 22, as part of ambitious efforts by Frito-Lay and PepsiCo to convince consumers that the companies care about the environment. Those measures include buying renewable energy credits, a move that is being promoted on packages of SunChips.

Frito-Lay does not intend to hide its light under a bushel. A campaign to inform shoppers about the ecologically friendly changes is getting under way, composed of television commercials, print advertisements, billboards, information on the SunChips website (sunchips.com) and a presence on Facebook, the social-networking website.

Environmental themes are enjoying a boom and are changing how marketers and agencies talk to consumers. Companies like Coca-Cola, General Electric, General Motors, Macy’s, EW Scripps, Toyota and Wal-Mart are clambering aboard a bandwagon painted green, festooned with flowers and powered by an engine that runs on biodiesel fuel.

“What we’re talking about is what we’re doing or what we’ve done,” Jones said of the campaign. “We’re not making claims we can’t back up.”

The commercials in the campaign, which are to start appearing on April 4, feature girls and women frolicking in the sun as an announcer invites viewers to “imagine capturing the sun’s power and making chips with it.” The spots end with the words “SunChips, now made with solar energy,” and the brand’s theme, “Live brightly.”