Ftsis 2007: Honda To Continue Environmental Strategy

Despite some criticism of the stance, Honda F1 Racing marketing director David
Butler confirmed at the FT Sport Industry Summit that the team would continue to
invest heavily in promoting environmental concern.

Butler stated that the second year of the ‘My Earth Dream’ campaign, which
saw a picture of the earth replace all the sponsors’ logos on the Honda F1 car
last season, would concentrate more on activation of environmental programmes as
opposed to marketing the idea.

He said: ‘We have had some criticism of the campaign but the fact is that you
have to do and say if you are to have integrity. We’ve said a lot about the
environment this year and next year will see us do environmentally-centric
activity.

‘It’s about moving from the bold visual to activation. We are going to invest
significantly in supporting environmental and social programmes around the world
that can make a real difference to climate control.’

Butler’s comments were supported by Sir Keith Mills, chief executive of the
TEAM Origin sailing team, who warned that sport’s involvement in environmental
concern has a ‘big danger of looking like a PR stunt unless you do something
real and tangible’.