Kids nag. Often parents give in. Kids get what they want. Usually what they want is an ice cream, a trip to the beach or a new Barbie. But Mischief and eco-friendly soap brand, Gelo, are using kid-power to get parents to be more environmentally aware.

The partners have developed The Parent Track, which lets kids follow their parents around the internet nagging them to ditch single-use plastics and buy more responsible products. It’s what Gelo’s competitors are doing with their programmatic advertising – but Gelo’s nagging is doing good for the planet.

All kids have to do is visit The Parent Track on their parents’ or family devices to have them become automatically cookied. From then on, that device will receive numerous digital ads with messages from kids encouraging their parents to follow more sustainable practices. The ads follow the users around the internet and lead to a range of educational tools created by Gelo to give guidance on how to be kinder to the environment.  

The ads use the same emotional tugging kids favour – notes such as, You still kiss your kids in public; don’t embarrass them more by buying single-use packaging, and, Your kids aren’t mad that you bought single-use packaging, they’re just disappointed. Which is way worse.

“When it comes to sustainability, our future is quite literally in the hands of our kids, so we’ve given them this cheeky tool to help educate their elders,” stated Curan Mehra, founder and chief executive officer of Gelo. More than 1.3 billion tons of plastic waste will flow into the world’s oceans over the next two decades without widespread intervention. It’s hoped that this somewhat annoying drive for awareness will convert to tangible change in households across America and beyond.”