Is Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of COP27 greenwashing?

One of the greatest benefits of sponsorship is the ability to enhance or alter stakeholder brand perception. In most cases, this is achieved by piggybacking off audiences’ positive associations with the team, event or individual you choose to sponsor. Some brands use this tactic to highlight existing brand attributes, while others use it to mask negative ones. Both can work effectively, but one tends to backfire more than the other.

Greenwashing, for those unfamiliar with the term, is the use of marketing to present an environmentally friendly image for a company that is anything but. BP is no stranger to these accusations. The company’s various partnerships with the National Portrait Gallery and TATE Britain have been the subject of countless protests from across the art world.