Green, green, we’re green they say…
When you’re still in the midst of it all, who’s to say when a tipping point has been reached? Twenty years, or maybe fifty years from now, we’ll know—but from this particular vantage point it seems we’re finally reaching a mass awareness of global environmental issues.
It’s been a long time coming. We had the Energy Crisis in the 1970s, significant concern over acid rain, holes in the ozone layer, and yet somehow it seemed that we never quite put it all together and took it seriously. Whatever happened, and it was undoubtedly a long, long series of various issues and events, there is now a mainstream green momentum that seems unstoppable.
It can’t be a bad thing that many, if not most, of our major ad agencies and their clients are looking for ways to get involved. Sure, we might sometimes sneer a bit at everyone jumping on the bandwagon. For example, last fall Brian Morrissey of Adweek posted on AdFreak: “But of course advertising, at its heart, is about feeding mass consumerism, which is the main cause of the pickle we’re in with global warming to begin with. The same agencies that are preaching about green initiatives would, I’m sure, fall all over themselves the next time there’s a review to make ads promoting gas-guzzling SUVs.” However, there’s no question that every agency has significant personnel who sincerely care about global warming, animal extinctions, resource depletion, and future generations. And now we’re starting to put some muscle into marketing the environment.
One real danger is that we’ll overdo the effort with a flood of showy but minimally effective marketing initiatives, effectively overdosing the public with too many servings of environmental awareness junk food. If so, we might find that like any sudden fashion, the interest will wane and give way to the next shiny distraction.
How do we use our considerable marketing expertise to tackle the problem efficiently? Will more and more websites, television ads, posters, and movies do the job? Is more always better? Or is that approach how we created the problem in the first place? More, more, bigger, bigger, until the audience just doesn’t care anymore?
Take any one promotion or campaign by itself and yes, we’re impressed. Good work. Today I saw the very clever and professional Wild Snowman by Avenue A | Razorfish. Beautiful. I sent the link to several co-workers. And I know it took real energy, talent, time, and money to produce that piece.
I also thoroughly enjoyed this ad from the “Unscrew America” campaign (a project of GSD&M’s Idea City):
But what if we have dozens and dozens of websites, ads, etc. like these? Too much of a good (or feel-good) thing? I think there’s a real danger here, with so many agencies all pounding away at the same message. The challenge is to recognize that we’re all on board, that there are a lot of us and that we need to focus on more directed efforts to have maximum effect.
For example, what if one ad agency offered to work with school districts to create environmental education promotions and activities? This would require working with teachers to determine approaches that would fit into and complement the existing curriculum and thus actually be used. Another agency could research the best ways to save energy in a variety of workplaces (offices, stores, factories) and provide employers with posters and other materials to help educate employees about practical ways they can contribute at work. These are just samples of ways in which any agency might specifically direct and achieve greater impact by not duplicating the work of others.
The bottom line is that environmental issues are important and we finally have the public’s attention, but we shouldn’t all spend our time producing award-winning work about turning off light bulbs.
The disappointment of the stork
In so many ways, this is a beautiful, affecting, and probably very effective television ad. Before I say more, take a look.
The story, visuals and music seduce the viewer, until the bittersweet ending delivers the payoff. The stork drops his head and the raindrop tears flow down the glass. How many of us watch and then wonder about ourselves and what we’re doing with our lives? Are we just disappointment and wasted potential? Might not any of us just for a moment consider how much more we’re worthy of?
It worked for me. I’ve been there—late nights, sometimes all night—yawning through the extra hours to get the job done, just grinding away at my computer, coding, testing, fixing. No-one there to appreciate the effort. Testing, coding, testing. There’s nothing at all glamorous about it. Sad, really.
But then I realize… I’ve created some of my best work and felt the greatest sense of accomplishment after those all-nighters. It’s what I do. When push comes to shove, I push on through to do the job right. I’m a Flash guy. I earn my pay and I’m proud of what I do.
Nothing wrong with that.
Whoa. Advertising Age also did a review of the Monster “Stork” ad—Yawning Production Flaw Keeps Ad Half a Second From Genius. I think perhaps they bent over backwards to find the fault they did.
“Gonna Fly Now” or not?
It’s the day after Super Bowl XLII. We’re all talking about the game and we’re talking about the commercials. As usual, there were some fun commercials, but overall I can’t help but feel disappointed. Okay, nothing new here—every year I feel disappointed. You hear how this is the Big Event and how much it costs to air a 30-second spot and you think they’ve got to be more than just good. They’ve got to be worth all that money and all that hype.
Why can’t the ad industry, or the clients who pay them, meet the challenge? There are some amazing and effective spots out there all through the year, so why don’t we actually see more of the best during the big game?
Maybe our expectations are just too high. Or could it be that the ads are so damn good, we’re quickly sated and nothing stands out?
I don’t think so.
Maybe it’s just me. Apparently even the experts have difficulty agreeing on the ads that did work. David Armano, whom I truly respect, says via Twitter, “Laura Ries picked Budweiser ‘rocky’ for best SB ad? I want whatever drugs she’s on.” She likes it and he isn’t that impressed, though he doesn’t say why. Is this an “in crowd” thing—as in, if you really understood advertising, you’d know why the Budweiser Rocky commercial isn’t so great? I liked it. Apparently a lot of people did.
Or is general popularity an ironic kiss of death when it comes to television advertising?
Update: David Armano comes through again. Via Twitter, he refers us to “The BEST Superbowl Ad you never saw on Superbowl Sunday”. Excellent.