Marketing the (Im)Possible
Big brands’ vague “possibility” claims can easily mislead. Here are five examples revealing their hazy sustainability promises.
Nike’s “Just Do It” is the quintessential slogan – short, powerful, and resonating universally. It encapsulates ambition and achievement, making it a timeless rallying cry for athletes and go-getters alike. However, not all brand messaging is as genuine or effective. Many companies today engage in misguided practices that are at times deliberately misleading and prone to greenwashing. Unlike Nike’s slogan, which stands for something real, these brands hide behind empty promises of sustainability, deceiving consumers who care about the planet.
Many companies today engage in misguided practices that are at times deliberately misleading and prone to greenwashing.
In our era of climate crisis action, brands are redefining themselves to align their messaging with sustainability and their culture with greater resilience. Most of their messaging falls flat and often backfires, coming across as greenwashing or half-baked attempts to convince audiences that they are concerned about their impact on nature. While trying to appeal both to those genuinely concerned and their general customers, brands are formulating messages to transmit the feeling and possibility of a better, cleaner, and healthier world.
In attempts to make memorable and lasting global campaign messages, five different brands opted to use the word ‘possible’ (or some form of ‘possible’) in their slogan, claim, motto, or campaign. In the hope of triggering an emotion amongst consumers who want to believe in, or influence, the possibility of a more sustainable scenario, these five brands dilute their claim by transmitting a hazy and vague notion of what a philosophical ‘Possible’ could be. This kind of linguistic confusion creates an immediate disconnect.
1. Imagine Possible
A first example of this is the Swedish telecommunications company, Ericsson, which made the following statements:
“At Ericsson we are making the unimaginable possible, and realising a world where limitless connectivity improves lives, redefines business and pioneers a sustainable future.”
They also repeat the statement on their LinkedIn channel: “We create limitless connectivity to improve lives, redefine business and pioneer a sustainable future. #ImaginePossible.”
But what exactly is Ericsson saying? If the future is to be sustainable, it can’t also be limitless – that’s a contradiction in terms. We can’t claim to be sustainable with our natural resources while having limitless access to everything.
2. Think Possible!
The second climate communication gaffe is from Belgian internet and television provider, Proximus, who made similar greenwashing statements:
“Think possible means that we are convinced that new digital solutions will make our lives easier, will enable us to work together in smarter ways and will allow us to make our world sustainable.”
As part of their digital Green’ society, Proximus claims that: “We are committing to reach net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across our entire value chain by 2040, a truly circular company by 2030, and enabling our customers to reduce their impact on the environment.”
This statement risks being labelled as greenwashing if the company does not provide a clear, actionable plan or demonstrate measurable progress toward these ambitious goals, making the promises seem more like a marketing spin than true dedication to sustainability.
3. Start Your Impossible
The third example is not greenwashing, but a marketing lesson to be learned when using the infamous ‘possible” in campaigns. With all the hype about the summer 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the Japanese car brand, Toyota, took the opportunity as the Official Worldwide Mobility Partner to reignite its “Start Your Impossible” campaign and introduced its “Sports Ambassadors” as a group of Olympic and Paralympic athletes “pushing their boundaries every day to go further than many think possible”.
The campaign was used at the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 in South Korea and started more internally in 2017 as:
“a global corporate initiative that aims to inspire Toyota employees, partners, and customers and connect them with the company’s core beliefs. In an age of accelerating technological and environmental developments, “Start Your Impossible” marks Toyota’s commitment to support the creation of a more inclusive and sustainable society in which everyone can challenge their impossible.”
“Start your Impossible” campaign also highlights how Toyota products go beyond the norm: from electric vehicles bringing trading services to their customers, to a small autonomous robot “designed to do big things,” Toyota wants to bring the future into the present. But is it that crazy that in 2024 technology and humans are pushing the boundaries of the past to create a new version of what is possible? If in Back to the Future, Marty McFly flew around on a hoverboard in the hypothetical year of 2015, then we have some catching up to do…
4. Beyond The Impossible
Flying into number four is the Emirates national brand, which ran a series of billboard ads in the Paris metro during the 2024 Olympics. The Emirates brand slogan – “Impossible is Possible” – is clever but rather overused, aiming to inspire ambition and achievement. The ads somehow fall flat and seemed out of place in Paris, serving as a prime example of why marketers should steer clear of such absolute terms.
The French ‘Apporte ton Impossible’ shown in this campaign in the Parisian metro is somewhat heavy and the English ‘Impossible is Possible’ feels even more circuitous and convoluted. “Impossible” and “possible” tend to oversimplify complex aspirations and usually set unrealistic expectations. Instead, ads should focus on clear, achievable benefits that genuinely resonate with the audience’s experiences and desires, fostering trust and credibility rather than relying on abstract, potentially empty claims.
The Emirates has made incredible laudable strides but it’s not ‘impossible’ or they would not be where they are today. Ironically, emphasising the impossible reinforces and ridicules how possible it all seems to be. Here we have ads for going to the moon and building airports, buildings, and other infrastructure, with no indication or worry about sustainability or climate change.
5. The Bridge to Possible
Finally, the San Francisco-based tech company, Cisco, uses a sub-claim to its ‘possible’ message: “If you can imagine it, we will build the bridge to get you there.”
This sounds like the yellow brick road on the way to find the Wizard of Oz, a veritable Kierkegaardian leap of faith into the future where anything is truly possible. As seen on their LinkedIn, Cisco assures everyone that: “We securely connect everything to make anything possible.”
This is extremely vague and so all-encompassing that it cannot possibly be true. Can Cisco make ‘anything possible’? Camilla Tenn is more gullible and seems to believe so.
Cisco goes on to equate ‘smart buildings’ with ‘strong planet’ (as if the planet needs more buildings) in an entirely misleading video that cleverly juxtaposes nature and city for an ‘inclusive future for all’:
As we commence 2025 (the goal year quoted in Cisco’s sustainability pledge), it will be interesting to see if they have kept their word. Will they have achieved a 100% circular design of their products and packaging? Even though in the same year they aim for only 50% recycled plastic – already a contradiction: how can they have 50% recycled material and be 100% circular? If it expects its audience to believe in this message, Cisco must hold itself accountable by transforming its words into action.
In these five case studies, ‘possible’ is used as a place – a nebulous, evasive, and mysterious place called Possible. Where is this place? How do we access it? That’s not clear at all. Due to this unclear messaging and the subsequent affiliation of a ‘sustainable future’ with this arbitrary destination, consumers become uncertain, and the company loses credibility. “Possible” becomes unbelievable.
Every time you hear the word ‘possible,’ you register the opposite – that whatever is being transmitted may not actually be possible.
Why do these ‘possible’ messages not work? Every time you hear the word ‘possible,’ you register the opposite – that whatever is being transmitted may not actually be possible. Involuntarily or not, you may also question why it was not made possible sooner. What makes it possible now? Sustainability should not be a possibility; sustainability should be our reality today.
Sustainability should not be a possibility; sustainability should be our reality today.
So, the moral of the story: don’t use ‘possible’ in your messaging, people may find it (possibly) too ambiguous.