Winter is often a time when we forget about the real problems of the environment. When it snows we think there can’t be anything like global warming going on, for instance. That’s why I’m glad that several organizations, both non-profit and commercial, are carrying out advertising programs that are well designed, highly creative and thought provoking on the subject of environmental dangers and the causes our way of life creates. The blog Webecoist.com is currently showing a series of 25 print ads by the World Wildlife Federation, Diesel (designer clothes) and Lavera (cosmetics) which are taking these subjects head on.
The approaches are different, but the results are the same: they point out how our ignoring of the problem so far… indeed, our culture’s pushing the things that make the problem… has led us to a potential “bad end”. An end, by the way, that we assume we can live with (The Diesel ads really stress this.)
The WWF has several approaches (plus a series of ads about how we are using endangered species for our own lifestyle choices while we wipe the animals out), one of which is comparing the destruction of the environment for arctic animals with the situation of homeless people.
These ads are appearing in high-end magazines and fashion publications – certainly aimed at the folks who spend the most money on things which lead to the problem and, I would guess, folks with the most influence (read: financial influence) over our lawmakers. This may be a lost cause, though. The “rich” have rarely put the world’s needs above their own interests… I look at the current controversy about investment executive salaries in the face of economic devastation as a critical example.
I would encourage blogs to post some of these ads, since we have readers worldwide it seems. The more blogs, the more people. And I thank Webecoist.com for their post.
