After last year’s Aspen Way campaign touting unity, love, respect, and commitment, the Aspen Skiing Company has taken a new approach with its annual campaign, issuing a call to action on climate change that it's dubbed Give a Flake. 

“Our founding vision, the Aspen Idea, was never about escaping reality or retreating from the world’s challenges," said SkiCo president and CEO Mike Kaplan in a press release. "That’s why we are taking the bold step of launching the Give a Flake campaign.” 

In fact, SkiCo doesn’t even consider the initiative—created in conjunction with Karsh Hagan, the Denver-based marketing firm that also helped design the Aspen Way campaign—as Aspen Snowmass–specific advertising. The slogan, after all, isn’t “Give a Flake, Aspen,” it’s just“Give a Flake” and is meant to inspire others who love the mountains and skiing to show their support for sustaining that way of life.

In addition to the overall issue of climate change, other elements of the initiative, which launched in September, include sustainability, green operations,  support for nonprofit Protect Our Winters, and social inclusivity. 

Give a Flake started by urging people to vote for the environment in the recent midterm elections and continues by encouraging us to reach out to congresspeople and senators through calls, writing letters, and posting on social media. SkiCo has inserted upwards of one million mailable postcards in select magazines, including Outside, Powder, Freeskier, and Aspen Sojourner, as well as placed the cards at local ticket offices. The messages on them target three U.S. senators who are swing votes on climate-change policy: Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, Maine’s Susan Collins, and Rob Portman from Ohio. As an added incentive, SkiCo has picked up the postage cost. 

The campaign will have additional elements throughout the season, including a focus on social concerns around tolerance, inclusivity, and LGBTQ rights that will become more visible mid-January, when Aspen's 41st annual Gay Ski Week takes place.

 “Not only does Aspen Snowmass have valued visitors who are diverse in their sexual orientations and ethnicities, but our coworkers, friends, and community members are, too,” added Kaplan in the release. “We want everyone to feel welcomed and cherished. Advocating for what’s right and taking a stand shows we really mean it.”  

No matter where you like to ski, SkiCo wants you to share your commitment to the campaign's philosophy, using the hashtag #GiveaFlake. You’ll be in good company. In the first 24 hours after the initiative's launch, more than 60,000 social media impressions linked to the hashtag. Have you posted yet? Learn more here.