Titled “The DeathZone”, the latest commercial campaign by Greenpeace Energy in Germany [Update on Jan. 12, 2010: I have just been contacted by one of the copywriters behind the campaign. The campaign is not actually run by Greenpeace, but was part of a project led by students of the Miami Ad School Europe, in Germany] aims at raising public awareness around the issues of aging nuclear reactors and the real dangers and safety threats associated to it, by referring to the Tchernobyl disaster and the remaining 32km2 exclusion zone (here called DeathZone) around the disaster site.

In addition to the video below, the DeathZone campaign includes a series of billboards, a balloon release event, and a virtual line to be drawn through the city of Hamburg at a radius of 32km2 as a symbolic representation of the DeathZone.

[ Update on Jan. 12, 2010: A more up-to-date and 'official' video is available here, with a clear disclaimer at the end notifying that this film is the work of students of Miami Ad School Europe.]

All in all, a campaign that could very well be a missed opportunity for Greenpeace Energy to further its goals and generate effective engagement around an important and rather urgent issue. I explain:

• The message is flawed. Scare tactics are used. The video and the billboards feed the public with apocalyptic images of nuclear disasters, of doom and despair … similar to any ‘end of the world’ movie you can think about. The title of the campaign says it all: DeathZone.

• What about the future? In the video, it says that “60% of Germans oppose the change in the law (i.e. canceling the “nuclear phase-out option”), but the vast majority still uses nuclear power”. Here is a big challenge…but Greenpeace totally fails to offer any solution or viable alternative. In a pure dramatic style, the campaign maximizes the problem and minimizes the solution (which is actually non-existent).

• Without any positive messages or any forward looking offer, this campaign might very well leave the public helpless/hopeless. And will unlikely generate behavior change or even enhance support for the anti-nuclear cause, whether from citizens/general public … or politicians.

After 16 ads of the day…I (sadly) feel like I am repeating myself, am I ? 

Credits: Advertising Agency: Miami Ad School Europe // Art Director: Zoe Sys Vogelius // Copywriters: Duncan Munge, Amadeus Henhapl

Source: Green Advertising Blog

This animated film does a great job at raising awareness about a whole set of coal-related issues, both social and environmental, such as  deadly labor conditions, air pollution & climate change, thus leading to rising sea levels, etc. It therefore shows very well how a coal-fueled economic growth will inevitably (and is already) casts a shadow on China’s development at both social and economic levels.

Some numbers to keep in mind, and that are extracted from The Tue Cost Of Coal, a China-based research report sponsored by WWF, Greenpeace and the Energy Foundation, and published in 2008:

• China is the king of coal. It is the world’s biggest producer and consumer (coal makes up 70 percent of China’s energy needs – compared with a world average of 40 percent)

• Last year environmental and social costs associated with China’s use of coal came to RMB1.7 trillion – that’s about 7.1 percent of the nation’s GDP for the same year

• More than 31,000 coal miners in China died from accidents down the mine between 2000 and 2006

• Some 80 percent of China’s carbon dioxide – a key greenhouse gas – emissions comes from burning coal

• According to recent scientific data, rising temperatures, loss of arable land and water scarcity may cut China’s overall food production by up to 23 percent by 2050

Credits:

Advertiser: GREENPEACE // Ad Agency: OGILVY BEIJING, CHINA // Executive Creative Director: Doug Schiff // Creative Director: Yanyan Yang // Copywriter: Doug Schiff // Agency Producer: Fei Wang/Doug Schiff/Yimeng Bai/Lulu Yang // Account Manager: Vivian Guo // Production Company: VIGORTIME Beijing, CHINA // Director: Doug Schiff // Music: Artist/Title: Kadri Gopalnath // Animation: Li Zhen/Fang Xiaodong/Hou Kun/Yang Qian/Gao Lue/Hou Kun/Wu Xiandeng/Deng Nanbing/Sun Yuzhen // Art Director: Fei Wang/Yanyan Yang/Yimeng Bai // Other Credits: Animation Directors: Hong Yu/Li Jie/Zhang Aihua

Thanks @thomascrampton for sharing this.

However, the genius and creativity of the ‘Melting Ice Men’ made it all: in bid to draw attention to global warming, and urge the German government to take action at Copenhagen, ice sculptures in the shape of humans were placed on the steps of the music hall in Gendarmenmarkt public square in Berlin, on Sept. 2.

Within 30 minutes,  the 1,000 ice sculptures created by artist Nele Azevedo had already began to melt, thus symbolically raising awareness on the possible effects of the global worming.

The operation/art installation was a great success, generating both domestic and international media coverage (The Telegraph, The Washington Post, Yahoo News, The Toronto Sun, etc..) , as well as a great amount of photos taken on site, shared online, and widely commented on blogs and micro-blogging platforms, etc.

A great piece of art-icy work done by Nele Azevedo, who was not a first-timer, and who mastered the use of her art in a very disruptive, yet poetic manner!

Again, I am pretty amazed to see how two powerful medium such as art and advertising can reinforce each other and be a very efficient, and innovative, way to spread a message and letting  citizens/people reflect on the effects of climate change, such as this Polar Bears ad for EDF in the US.

What do you think? Have you ever encountered any art-vertising of that kind?

Sources: Adland.tv and QG-RemarkableAdvertising

Credits Images: Reuters

]]> http://www.sustainabilityconversations.com/2009/09/17/adctivism-of-the-day-10-wwfs-melting-ice-men-in-germany/feed/ 0 http://www.sustainabilityconversations.com/2009/08/05/ad-of-the-day-6-greenpeace-disruptive-adctivism-on-australian-newspapers/ http://www.sustainabilityconversations.com/2009/08/05/ad-of-the-day-6-greenpeace-disruptive-adctivism-on-australian-newspapers/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:56:14 +0000 admin http://www.sustainabilityconversations.com/?p=334 ” Coal or Climate, Kevin?”.  This is in those terms that Greenpeace Australia is currently calling out to Kevin Rudd, Australia’s Prime Minister, to commit to bold cuts in greenhouse gas emissions at COP15 in December as Pacific Leaders meet in Caines at the 40th Pacific Islands Forum to discuss climate change.

 True to Greenpeace’s traditional use of ‘non-violent direct action’ to generate noise and create effective disruption, a group of Greenpeace activists have shut down coal export facilities on the Queensland coast for the second day in a raw.

Why talking about this in an ‘Ad of the day’ post…well, because the campaign has also integrated  digital activism on the home page of 2 major online Australian newspapers – The Australian and The Courier Mail. The action shows activists painting the slogan “Toodle-oo Tuvalu? Your call Kev” across the home page.

As my great colleague and friend – @ilsevs, who shared with me this story - pointed out, such tactic is an ideal way of getting campaign message across to as many people as possible, and especially to key Australian decision-makers and political elite who represent a great part of the newspapers’ readership.

Of course, Greenpeace is also leveraging Twitter and its official website for live-updates as the campaign unfolds at the coal ports and in the media.

A interesting example of disruptive adverstising/adctivism for environmental purpose. Let’s see if any  positive change  will result from this campaign at the political level, especially as  fight against climate change is one of Kevin Rudd’s priority, and his favorite blogging topic…

Credits: Creative Director: Peter Novosel // Art Director: Taimi Soome //Account Management: Alison Ray

Tappening

The campaign is raising awareness but at the same points out to the practices (why not greenwashing? huh) of the bottled water/packaging industry. Pretty interesting, especially as the bottled water industry recently faced huge criticism and backlash in the US.

The ad series include:

*Bottled Water: 98% Melted Ice Caps. 2% Polar Bear Tears

*Bottled Water is the Primary Cause of Restless Leg Syndrome

*Bottled Water Causes Blindness in Puppies

*Bottled Water Makes Acid Rain Fall on Playgrounds

Advertising Agency: DiMassimo Goldstein, USA
Creative Director: Mark DiMassimo
Art Director: Chris Carlberg
Copywriter: Justin Prichard
Illustrator: Jan Kallwejt
Published: July 2009

Tappening’s campaign is largely viral in nature: it includes a Web site which enables users to share their own water-related lies and view the four Tappening ads above and ’share the lies’ via Facebook, Twitter, Digg or Email with their friends and family. Tappening is using the power of the internet and social media to spread the world with only $535,000 as campaign budget.  Other elements include wild postings in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and Las Vegas.

Before this current campagin, Tappening’s activist ad men released politically themed ads as the U.S. presidential race heated up:

The campaign was attacking the candidates bad habit of drinking bottled water wherever they went with this campaign.