Associated Drops Pants for a Good Cause

Associated used its public relations and community event marketing expertise to help change blue to green. And it was all accomplished by asking area residents, businesses and our own staff to “Drop Your Pants.”

On Oct. 26, 2007 Associated hosted a denim drive, collecting boxes and boxes of old jeans and denim items in Wichita’s high-profile Old Town Square. The denim collection was part of Cotton’s Blue to Green program, which turns denim into environmentally friendly household insulation for new homes built by Habitat for Humanity in the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged gulf coast area. For the past two years, Wichita State University has hosted the program. This is the first year Associated has participated.

The results of Associated’s strategy: A high-flying denim display and an eyebrow-raising banner in Old Town Square, all to encourage folks to “Drop Your Pants.” Many pairs of denim donated by Associated proudly flew from its balconies publicizing the cause. This generated attention from the Wichita media. Local NBC and ABC-TV affiliates covered the event, along with KFDI radio, the area’s highest rated station, creating excellent awareness for the agency, university and the cause.

Associated’s skyward thinking and publicity tactics helped gather hundreds of denim items at this event and contributed to WSU collecting 7,056 items to the national cause, shredding its original goal of 2,500.