Few months after the controversy around the WWF Brazil / DDB Brazil 9/11 ad, shockvertising is at again with a new ad / promotional film from U.K.-based anti-aviation expansion campaigners Plane Stupid, and developed by the ad agency Mother.
This ad is not only brutal, shocking or gore: An airplane engine humming crescendos in the background as polar bears drop out of the sky, slam to the ground and meet their (very) bloody deaths. An imagery close to the worst of the 9/11 tragedy itself,
But this ad, from a climate change communications perspective, also presents all the elements of a counter-productive strategy, which might very well end up being totally ineffective at driving behavioral change and engagement, as Ed Gillespie, co-director of sustainable communications agency Futerra, wrote in The Guardian’s Environmental Blog:
“Certainly it’s controversial imagery will garner press interest, after all I’m writing this analytical blog for starters, and for campaigning organisations with limited budgets and only one bite at the media cherry this is crucial. However I’m still not sure it will change behaviour, the danger is that by pumping up the high octane drama of an ad, you increase the risk of viewers feeling manipulated and dismissing it as pure propaganda. Or lapsing into highly questionable failures of tact and taste in pursuit of ‘edginess’.”
In the end, again, such ad will generate some sort of buzz online & offline and perhaps will get awarded at advertising festivals, but it will not generate any positive result for Plane Stupid and the cause they defend over the longer-term.
What we call climate porn (i.e. presenting apocalyptic visions of climate change, etc…) remains mostly commercially motivated…rather than mission-driven!
To watch the ad, click here.
Credit Image: Steve Cole, Getty Images
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