Clear Water Initiative (Cause Marketing)

PepsiCo has a realtionship with movie star Matt Damon. Pepsi has donated over 2.5 million dollars to his cause. Since Pepsi had helped him he has endorsed Ethos. Ethos bottle water which is Starbucks bottled water donates 5 cents of every bottled water bought to help children around the world access clean healthy water. Their statement is "If you choose to drink bottled water, please choose to make a difference. Pepsi and Starbucks are a joint venture partnership. This type of marketing is known as cause marketing which is a topic we have covered in class. Coke, Pepsi's biggest rival always takes a huge interest in this kind of marketing. In the past they have said that if you buy their water products you will be helping reforest Austrailia. Customers can plant a tree buy registering the barcode on the companies website. Do you think this is Ethical marketing behavior or Unethical marketing behavior? Its interesting that although a company is doing a good thing its a way for them to make more money and capture a wider audience by creating a better image for themselves. What do you think?