Ban

SodaStream created a video to support an environmental group, 5 Gyres (http://5gyres.org/), an environmental group focused on the issue of plastic pollution. In the video, a prominent Belgium’s Federal Minister, Johan Vande Lanotte, formally announces that under his leadership, Belgium will be driving up the tax on plastic bottles and eventually banning them. At the video’s end, the reveal is that this is not Vande Lanotte, but an actor wearing an impressive latex mask (sort of Mission Impossible), who declares that Vande Lanotte should be making the speech, and until he does, 5 Gyres will make it for him. This video has prompted a huge media response in Belgium – it did its job. It’s another example of SodaStream’s willingness to keep poking Big Soda. At the Cannes Film Festival, for the first time in more than 20 years, SodaStream displaced Coca Cola as the sponsor of the American Pavilion. Different celebrities (Lars Ulrich, Will Forte, David Hasselhoff) came by the Pavilion to sign SodaStream Sources, which will be auctioned to raise funds for 5 Gyres.