Zaproot & T. Boone Pickens

While in the States recently T. Boone Pickens (say it like you're wearing a Stetson) was buying an awful lot of mind share in the media with his plan to shift the U.S. economy off oil. A noble effort  considering he'd made his fortune by sucking the finite resource out of the ground all his life, but better late than never I thought. Zaproot's Jessica Wlliamson presents an alternative case by pressing different buttons. Make your own mind up. 

Via Paul McEnany

All the water in the world

All the water in the world (or 1.4087 billion cubic kilometres of it) including sea water, ice, lakes, rivers, ground water, clouds, etc. (left). all the air in the atmosphere (or 5140 trillion tonnes of it) gathered into a ball at sea-level density (right). both shown on the same scale as the Earth.

Via Information Aesthetics

What in the world can stop a G-Class?

Erm....Peak oil and climate change spring to mind. Lovely ad though.

Beijing Art

I recieved an invite from Joy Island to see her band play at a Shopping Mall (coincidentally called Joy Shopping Mall) on Saturday and I went along to check out her band Two Oranges' music. I discovered that it was also an art and environment combo (is that the original word for mashup?) sponsored by Arrtco who seem quite clued up.

I wanted to share some snaps of the art for the time being because it was rather good and seemingly transcended the language barrier. I particularly like the feces theme on the video installation below. I think we'd all be a bit more careful about our electricity use if our notebooks or TV's took an occasional crap. Anyway here ya go it was on sale for 1200 Euros in case you are curious of the prices.

I quite like that pick up your phone and get your money ready line. QVC couldn't have put it any better could they?

The bike below looked like the frame had grown out of the trees or vice versa.

The print poster below was called something like 'Bath together, Save water'. Which reminded me of an old campaign I think from when the UK suffered a very memorable drought in 1976. Beijing is almost rain free and needs to pump its water in from further and further afield each year as its next to a desert. I can't help thinking about Frank Herbert's SF book Dune that I was into as a lad and where water is so scarce on the desert planet Arrakis that it is considered an honour to be spat upon.

Lastly I really like this piece which with a bit of typography help and a couple of word tweaks would have got a full 10 out of 10 for its 25 mini frames. Each contained a line that built up a narrative of human development from nature to robot and one particularly poignant frame on the bottom left with a jet plane and the planet earth, and the line; "They began to see the world as a plaything" which is kind of true when I think about say the time I took a plane to the airport and jumped on the next random flight out - I ended up in Phnom Penh. Imagine when most people in China can afford to do that. I'm guessing it's not too far off.

Update: Today's China Daily reports today that 97 airports are to open in China within 12 years. Naturally this is seen as only a good thing because the West taught China that the only benchmark worth knowing is the economic growth that we are all seemingly choking on.

Money From The Environment

Some of us have talked a fair bit in the past on the environment blogs including John Grant's Greenormal that going green is actually a massive business waiting to go ballistic. I guess I should have remembered this while meeting a twenty something in a Beijing bar who repeated three times that she was making amazing money from 'wind energy' farms in China... I thought it was a bit crass at the time but with the U.S. economy tanking on debt that only the consumer society could have created, it's probably good timing given that the banks are now being propped up by the Fed with our money).

Anyway, Amy from Terrarossa asked me to see what you think of this clip. I'd be grateful if you could let her know your reactions to any of it in the comments below. I've already given my feedback.

Beijing Smog

Beijing was immersed in smog for a marathon three or so days till this afternoon, and I thought I'd take a picture of how it looked compared with a clear day earlier in the month that I blogged about over here. There's a lot of schandenfreude in the Western Press over (well over anything Chinese actually) the smog in Beijing in the run up to the Olympics, along with less helpful suggestions that restricting the traffic will have an impact. It doesn't! The smog occurs over the weekends too. It looks very much like its the smokestack industries to the west of Beijing that are responsible for all this. The ones that made the remote controlled toy helicopters you secured for Christmas or filled up the Christmas crackers with plastic toys. Well you know how I feel about buying pointless shit.

I'm quite sure they will restrict these offending polluters around the time of the Beijing Olympics to make sure that our international visitors have a good time, and leave with a postive impression. Before the 15 million of us who live here can get back to doing what we do best. Cleaning the air by breathing it in with our lungs, and making the it sparkle and clean like below.

What I find most daunting is that things are unlikely to change in the short term. China is under pressure to reduce its trade imbalance with the U.S. and all the other countries that consume its vast output at morally questionable prices, I talked about over here. How are they going to do this? Well, part of the answer is that China will subsidise those TV's, personal computers, washing machines, air conditioners and domestically produced mobile phones to its rural/low tier city constituency before it asks the West for something in return. That last article slipped by a lot of people in the mobile phone business. It was released in the Indian press first just before the Christmas break.

Electric Dreams

I'm annoyed and sorry because I should have posted about this at least a week ago, as it’s a really sexy idea. As ever with Web 3.07 triggers, I've been reminded by a post over at the excellent John Grant's Greenormal to get my shit together, because it’s really important. John who along with Mark Earls' book Herd, published possibly one of the most constructively important marketing books of the millennium so far, also recently did a post on how so many good ideas from the past haven't been utilized properly. I really got thinking about this when Matt Catt turned up to a party in a Sinclair C5 because not only did he tip up (and leave) in the coolest manner ever, but did so in an environmentally responsible way.

Beijing is looking very zippy with these electric bikes come bicycles that I photographed above. They may not look like a Hummer but then only cocks drive Hummers right? I want to look into these funny electric bikes a bit more and possibly buy one because I think they are a terrific urban transport solution.

I think we really messed up when we built our cities around the car and sent our kids into bedrooms instead of out to play. But if we could champion transport ideas like the above and the Sinclair C5 again we'd not have to worry so much about our children getting run over and they'd be able to learn all those social skills that we had a chance to. The ones that prevented us from turning into socially alienated school killers that love to post their dark obsessions on the internet.

OK rant over, but if as one global planner shared with me recently you're one of those advertising types who are in this business for the money can I suggest you buy John’s book or maybe read his blog and see how you can be both a 'legend' and do good at the same time. Otherwise you’re not part of the solution. And I got a problem with that.

Bikes for rent in preparation for the 2008 Olympic visitors outside Jianguomen Subway Station Beijing

The Hub

I went to The Hub not so long ago and was bowled over by the energy in the place which is ironic because they are all social entrepreneurs and very adept at saving energy for themselves and their clients. I want to show you a short film clip of their most creative hot spot. Right at the end I've revealed where it was filmed. Neat huh?

Tell the truth. Its more creative than most advertising agency departments isn't it?. Why? Because we need to tear down the department walls. Like yesterday.

Living with yourself

Wherever you are in the world you may have scratched your head once or twice and tried to figure out what infinity means. Then when you'd given up on this you may even have reflected that we live in a world of finite resources. Fossil fuels are a great example. They are the reverse of infinite. That's finite to you and me. Once our selfish and greedy generation have used them up (like the fossil crack whores we are) there will none left for our kids. (Cue handing over responsibility to the scientists who make iPods we can put into blenders to show how clever we are, and will ultimately invent some mythical power that the kids can then forgive our first-come, first-served mentality)

We tend to fight wars over them, set geopolitical policy around them, have a century of the cheapest energy ever, and believe it or not make all things plastic out of oil before we throw them away in the contented illusion that what is OUT OF SIGHT IS OUT OF MIND. Other than that we like to fill up our gas guzzling SUV's from pipes at petrol stations and get scared if someone does it with a cigarette in their hand, because that would mess up our Christmas plans. Ah yes Christmas, where we go on another consumer spending bender topped off with orgies of indulgence before nipping into the vomitorium to make way for some more mince pies, Chrimbo pudding, presents and more cake while studiously avoiding any mention of the birth of Jesus Christ who I can assure you took frugality very seriously. Its time to make frugal a word to worship again. It may just save our skins.

So how can we do this while encouraging people to spend, spend, spend while achieving those growth growth growth (ugh) targets that make the world so tickety boo? Easy if you really think about it but it will take a rewiring of our economies, some sort of managed population decline and building businesses around recycling, sustainability, community and wait for this making money out of value not money out of stuff as Russell pointed out over here.

Anyway, just in case this is popping your amygdala out of its neocortex because your marketing and advertising acumen pays the mortage and the thought of saving the world really gives you a migraine then relax, because one of the worlds best thinkers on the subject John Grant has just published his book The Green Marketing Manifesto. You should stop sodding about and buy it immediately. As John puts it so eloquently in his book. If environmental issues are a moral question, then not doing the right thing is immoral. I say this is more important than reading the newspaper and casting judgement on others. Change the world. Change yourself.

Is Smirnoff Full of Shit?

shaolintiger

Rob Campbell of cynic - a conversation starting company has called me out on my previous post and quite fairly suggests that Smirnoff are only interested in the purity of their distillation process and not the purity of the environment that we live in. I still live in hope that what we are seeing may well be a small but nonetheless tectonic shift in the future of branding values.

I'll be very disappointed if its a case of greenwashing as has been extensively documented by my esteemed colleague and one of the smartest planners in the business John Grant, on his ace blog Greenormal. But it remains to be seen if Diageo, the parent company of Smirnoff is to use this as an ignition point for their brand. Otherwise it would only be appropriate to add the usual film disclaimer at the end of the commercial that: Any characters and incidents portrayed and the names herein are fictitious, including any resemblance to the issues raised in The Stern report relating to climate change where the polar caps melt and large statues will be covered in water because of our reliance on fossil fuels, best dramatised with the use of oil rigs in advertising.

I think I need a stiff drink now!

Get over to Robs blog for some of the best conversation on the net. He's the future of marketing communications and is fearless about his beliefs, even if that means he has to go right to the top.

Passat, Sirocco, Bora

Photographevince

Check this Cannes Gold Lion Winner:

Following on from the last post and unrelated to cars, this comes via the excellent Iain Tait's Crackunit and is reminiscent of the sadvertising theme which is just going to get bigger as necessity forces us to adapt and move away from superlative images of superficial, shiny happy people with shiny white teeth. Well done Epuron.

PSFK - Mind The Gap

The picture above is one I took while strolling one Sunday along Wimbledon Common a few weeks back. The guy was taking macro photography pictures of new appearances in insect life that hadn't been previously recorded and were appearing due to the changes in the British climate disrupting the ecosystem. Specifically, he was capturing a wasp like creature killing a dung-beetle like insect. Most people welcome a bit of warmer weather in the UK but the reality is that if we blindly continue with the current consumption is king economy, based on infinite growth, we can look forward to less acceptable changes in British flora and fauna. In my experience of the tropics its the snakes, large spiders and golf ball sized hornets that flip most people out.

One of the less obvious dimensions about the business of saving our own skins as the planet warms up is that a shed load of money is to be made in reshaping the existing wealth creation business model. The PSFK conference last Friday held a panel to discuss the topic with Karen Fraser from The Ethical Index chairing the discussion with John Grant (Greenormal), Diana Verde Nieto (Clown Fish) and Tamara Giltsoff (Ozolab). Not so long back I took some time out to study a bit about propaganda because it seemed obvious to me that there was no way that after the failure of Kyoto and the growth of China and India that the neoliberal capitalist model was going to rein in the excesses of marketing communications credo of sell more despite it 'getting hot in here' (so take off all your clothes). Actually I was pretty much floored by the release of the Stern Review Report on climate change which I had no expectation to see in my lifetime. If the human race can make a global business out of something like World Wrestling, Hello Magazine and Blue Tooth Headgear for anyone other than taxi drivers then I'm sure we can make a buck from shifting something not from A to B, but say from A to C. It really is as simple as that.

John Grant kicked off and although we've met in firstlife and talked bundles on his greenormal blog I only realised at the PSFK gig why he really does kick ass. John talks coherently in compelling joined up paragraphs and really could use an hour or two on his own to take us through a journey from sinners-in-denial to messianic converts. I think he's a national asset and at some point the British should collectively chip in to give him our spare carbon points because we need him out on the road and 'representing' for the U.K. around the globe since he practices what he preaches and only flies when only absolutely necessary. John opened with some breaking market research that aviation brands are the new dirty word. Can we anticipate a renaissance for the great British seaside holiday and the rise of the guest house again? Flying seemed to lose its sex appeal around about the time Pan Am were shot out of the sky in 1991, but its official now; only losers and drink drivers fly unnecessarily.

I urge you to buy John's about to be published book The Green Marketing Manifesto when it comes out, for all the juicy bits about how to do green marketing. He did talk about how the green (sustainable living) movement is in its early stages right now like digital was in 1995, and that there's a real opportunity for all marketing folk to get into this and start changing the senseless waste of that indulgent age 'The Consumer Society' and make good money out of it. Money and Green are not incommensurate, and one idea I liked was the movement to get children walking to school with a kagoul brand perhaps getting involved. However if you do check out one website to wet the whistle and that John has championed before, take a look at freecycle. Because sharing and recycling is the new Sexy black as I mentioned back here.

Tamara Giltsoff also chimed in with a similarly reasoned argument that a new sustainable business model is emerging and that its a front end change that we should be putting our marketing brain cells to, not short sharp shock. She also championed the need to put marketing and corporate responsibility (C.R.) together. We need to urgently be speaking to each other because doing good is actually something that sets products and services apart. Its not exactly rocket science is it? I did like the way that Tamara implied that SUV's were now approaching the social pariah status of something like a Chavmobile.

Diane Verde Nieto of Clownfish made a great observation for those in attendance, that modern communications professionals should be able to handle the schizophrenia of leading two agendas. One to sell our clients products and services and the other to build sustainability into the way they work. Again they are not incommensurate but it takes a twin track mind to handle the conflict in the transition stage. She also drew our attention to London's aim to be a sustainable city by 2020 which was something I wasn't aware of and will surely be a terrific motivator for business to reshape and retool. In addition Diane pointed out the Ariel low temperature wash cycle campaign(30 degrees) and that the internet is a heavy user of electricity impacting on the environment through huge data centers that are sprouting up around the world, as well as the costly running of computers and servers. Water, she alerted us, is going to be the next big challenge after carbon footprint responsibility takes hold. This makes complete sense for those who follow geopolitics around the globe and is a timely reminder for Sci-fi fans to reread Dune. Lastly Diane used a bleak euphemism for the business of carbon offset trading described as the equivalent for the environment of the morning after pill.

Fin de siècle

Cheesy and horrifying isn't it? 'Let it be cool' they tell us, just like the following brand spanking new ad from DDB which asks with a firm handshake and no hint of irony, 'When was the last time you smelt something real?'



So now I'm left with the question. Why do people flee from the cities to the coastline to get some clean air in the first place?