David Hasselhoff suits up for SodaStream to save the sea turtles in honor of Earth Day
PepsiCo-owned brand SodaStream has teamed up with former Baywatch star David Hasselhoff and nonprofit SEE Turtles to fund sea turtle conservation efforts.
SodaStream has tapped actor David Hasselhoff for a new campaign aimed at protecting sea turtles around the world. The effort, which arrives just a few weeks ahead of Earth Day on April 22, is being positioned by the brand as part of its ongoing efforts to reduce plastic waste and conserve natural ecosystems.
The new campaign from SodaStream – a PepsiCo-owned brand – launches today in collaboration with SEE Turtles, a non-profit organization that protects wild sea turtles through educational and volunteer programs. SodaStream says that it will contribute proceeds from its sparkling water sales around the world to SEE Turtles throughout the month of April.
The effort is being framed as an extension of what SodaStream describes as “its environmental DNA” – in other words, its ongoing commitment to ecological conservation. Last Earth Day, the brand pledged to save 78bn single-use plastic bottles by 2025.
“As part of SodaStream’s environmental responsibility and obligation to the planet, we are always looking for ways to do better,” said Karin Schifter-Maor, SodaStream’s global chief marketer. “This year we took another step in this direction with our biggest Earth Day campaign to date, which will last for the entire month of April, so at SodaStream we are actually celebrating ‘Earth Month.’ With this 360° campaign, we are engaging people to not only keep the oceans clean from single-use plastic waste, but also giving them the opportunity to save endangered baby sea turtles around the world.”
As part of the campaign, the brand has recruited Hasselhoff for a new ad. In the video spot, he responds to a flashing green siren that is emblazoned with the image of a baby sea turtle. In lieu of the classic red flotation devices featured in the show, Hasselhoff grabs a red SodaStream machine and runs in the show’s classic slow motion style down a beach to the scene of the emergency: a newborn sea turtle that’s been obstructed in its waddle to the sea by a discarded plastic cup – perhaps a symbolic representation of large-scale waste pollution choking marine environments around the world. He leaps over the gaping CGI turtle and grabs the cup before tumbling down in the sand, allowing the young waddler to complete its maiden voyage to the sea.
SodaStream is also seizing the opportunity with its new Earth Day campaign to tap into the growing hype around all things augmented reality (AR). In what it calls “a one-of-a-kind AR experience,” fans will be able to “save their own personalized virtual baby sea turtle and help it reach the ocean safely.” Hasselhoff was reportedly the first person to engage with this AR experience.