Video of Exploding People Makes a Mess of Green Marketing

File this under "What Were They Thinking?" And view it with discretion: This video promoting the UK's 10:10 environmental campaign shows children and adults blown to bloody bits. Entitled No Pressure, the film features X-Files' Gillian Anderson and English footballer Peter Crouch with soundtrack music by Radiohead, and was intended to encourage viewers to take personal action in reducing their carbon footprints.

In several graphic scenes, committed environmental campaigners use a detonator button to blow up uncooperative or reluctant members of the public, including schoolchildren and even Special Agent Dana Scully herself—to gut-wrenching (and gut-flinging) effect.

Rank this up there with Audi's "Green Police" Super Bowl ad as one of the most misguided attempts at green marketing in recent history.

Our planet is in peril, and the last thing we need is more polarizing—and politicizing—of this critical issue. We need rational discussion, personal commitment and radical change. But those who believe climate change is a bunch of left-wing lunacy and even apathetic people sitting on the fence are not going to be swayed by messages like this. In fact, it reinforces the notion that climate change is nothing more than scare tactics propagandizing Big Government/Big Brother mind control.

You can't mandate morality. And that's what this is about after all, isn't it? A moral issue. Are your choices and actions causing harm? Will you put the welfare of others above your own? Will you leave the planet a better place than you found it?

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Posted on Thu, October 7, 2010 by Jay Perdue filed under

4 comments (Add your own)

1. Suzanna Phelps-Fredette wrote:: Jay. You know that intrinsically I want to agree with you. I want to believe that if Tinker Bell is dying and we ask the world to clap to keep her alive, they will clap their little hands raw. But Wait! That's just not happening. I totally agree that sustainability is a moral issue and that you can't legislate morals -- but there lies the ticking time bomb. I'm losing my faith that there are enough "morally committed" people, particularly in the position to make world-changing decisions, to do what it takes to keep our planet and its infinitely greedy and "entitled' population from spinning out of control. I think back to the 60's and 70's -- there were the pretty-please flower children and there were the militant Greenpeace kids. Who affected more long-term, positive change?
Thu, October 7, 2010 @ 4:09 PM
2. wordnut wrote:: I agree, Jay. This just propagates the idea that all environmentalists think the environment is more important than the human being. And that's an idea that naysayers use to discredit the green movement. There HAD to be a better way to communicate the consequences of inaction than showing "green" people blowing up fellow human beings. Besides, it's just pretty darn gross.
Fri, October 8, 2010 @ 10:01 AM
3. Jay wrote:: Thanks for your comments. I suppose I can give them this much credit: At least their video has started a discussion. Unfortunately, it's not a very productive one.
Fri, October 8, 2010 @ 12:59 PM
4. Sheila wrote:: I think people like Wendell Berry may have more longterm impact for good in the desire to live at peace with the earth than any government initiative can have. He writes from love, encouraging a sense of community with the earth and with each other. Which is what motivates most people, if they ever get to experience it. And are exposed to such writing and thinking.

My experience in various parts of Europe has been that government can force people to recycle, but since it doesn't change people's general thinking, only their specific actions, they then still do all kinds of things to trash the environment. And, ironically, Germans are (according to a report I read) the worst litterers when they go abroad, even though their own country is kept so clean and nice and has environmentally conscious rules in place.

Rules without changed hearts are necessary for people to live together, but they have limited impact. As Susanna says, we have to have some regulation of things. And some people aren't going to change. But when looking at the long term, I think changed hearts are what make the real difference. And that doesn't just come from education, but from human relationships and real experiences that get to the mind and heart. Whether it's religion or environmentalism we're talking about.

As for this video, it just makes me want to distance myself from the initiative as much as possible. No way am I going to want to be lumped together with people who think like this, or even can think up such an ad, whether they really value people or not. It is horrible.
Fri, October 8, 2010 @ 6:12 PM