• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, April 27, 2022

To help promote renewable energy, global brewer Heineken dropped its trademark color green and faded to black in a new prime-time spot airing in Brazil.

The 45-second commercial, created by Publicis Brazil, airs in black for 30-seconds, because it was made using no light and "consumed 34% less energy" compared with its normal prime-time spots.

The spot was designed to surprise viewers and also generate awareness of the brewer's Green Energy Project.

"It saved enough energy to power a small city made up of 57,000 inhabitants in Brazil for a few hours," according to LuzIZ Consultancy, which worked on the project, noting that the project's registration site also had its "highest peak hit ever during the ad."

The spot may be the most significant deprecation of the color green in a brand's logo since Lucky Strike cigarettes changed its trademark green packaging to white and promoted it as part of the war effort in WWII (ostensibly, because the color green was needed for fatigues, tanks and other military equipment).