This billboard absorbs air pollutants.

I was in Manila last weekend to attend a political management workshop. Flying in from Bohol and arriving at rush hour, I regretted having told the cab driver to pass thru EDSA going to Sikatuna Village in Quezon City. Half-dosing, I amused myself with the gigantic lit-billboards along the way, going: hot, not, hot, hot, HOT, not, not, NOT, not. 


But then came this nearly all-green billboard with: “This billboard absorbs air pollutants” – and by unlikely green advertiser, too, the ever red Coke and with an unlikely collaboration with WWF. The ad sure piqued my curiosity. It got me thinking. The cab moved quicker than I thought, I could barely inspect the foliage assembled around the Coke bottle shape, if they were real plants and if they, indeed, absorbed air pollutants. 


But I was truly impressed enough to Google the details of the ad and true enough, as per its press release, the plants are real plants that absorb real pollutants. Will this make me patronize Coke products more? No. But, for sure, Coca Cola Philippine get some respect. I like the ad, it’s full of oxymoron’s (a green billboard, Coca Cola and WWF, green Coke), but it’s a think piece. And if its claims deliver? – hot!