Power Juicing: 2 Ads Using Oranges to Light the Way

Most of us can agree that fruit is an excellent source of natural energy. Have you ever considered that it might be useful for fueling more than just the human body? Two separate ad agencies have developed, more than a year apart, ad campaigns using the natural power of fruit to produce electricity. The ads take the time-honored “lemon battery” science fair project and turn it into a fun study of the power of nature.

Imperial Leisure developed this ad in 2010 for Jaffa oranges. The film shows a large array of Jaffa orange slices powering an iPhone, giving a unique perspective to the amount of energy needed to run not only our electronic devices, but our bodies as well. Metal spikes (usually zinc and copper) pierce the oranges and a chemical change takes place in the metal. This reaction produces a small amount of power; when lots of the tiny batteries are linked together they can actually produce a significant amount of electricity.

Much more recently, French agency DDB developed this short film for Tropicana. A similar fruit battery concept is used to power a neon billboard reading “Natural Energy.” Imperial Leisure, the British agency that developed the Jaffa campaign, argue that the Tropicana billboard can’t actually be powering the lights because when the oranges are pushed onto the spikes more than two electrodes (one positive, one negative) are piercing each one, meaning the battery would short out rather than produce any power. Whether the billboard is actually powered by oranges or not, both ad campaigns are a fantastic reminder of the energy our bodies can gain from eating natural foods.