I can't believe that anyone actually thought this was a good idea

[andrewducker]

Comments

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

A good idea? In terms of publicity generation it worked. I had never heard of this group before today. Now I have and have visited their website - if only to check it wasn't some sort of spoof.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Bit cheesy.

But the softly softly message clearly has insufficient impact.

[andrewducker]

I'm not sure how "Do your bit or we blow you up" is going to make the right kind of impact, especially when that's patently not going to happen.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Oh I dunno. We used to shoot traitors, didn't we?

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

I think it's hilarious. And effective. And think about this. The people that think that this is a sign of how horrible the climate change activists are, well, let me paint a picture for you.

They believe that if you're a climate change activist, then you'd like to blow up anyone that disagrees with you. Violently. With lots of gore.

That's a good way to make fun of climate change skeptics, I'd say.

[crm.livejournal.com]

i cant even tell the difference between a climate change skeptic and a normal person any more, i cant tell wat the message is.

all i know is that of all the people i meet and speek to while the majority acknowlege climate change as as close as dammit scientific consensus only a hand-full have forsworn air-travel. I must therefore assume that you are all climate change deniers and that this video is a jibe at me and the few others who have actually made lifestyle changes.

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

the problem there isn't belief or recognition - it's that actual effort is involved.

I'm working on the assumption that most people are too lazy to seriously do anything that will affect on a global scale [maybe lazy is the wrong word, but you get me, right?] and so the best way is via technology.
it's the stuff we use and the way we use it that's causing the problem, so make better stuff.

problem solved, right? I certainly bloody hope so. it's why I'm now an engineering student.

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

I agree with you, frankly. I don't think this movie is going to convince anyone who wasn't already convinced. Also, um, no.

[broin.livejournal.com]

OH COME ON. Where did your sense of humour burrow off to? :D

Dude. I know how sick your sense of humour is. _Dude_.

Are you saying that it's not funny, or that the joe would be misread, or...?

[andrewducker]

I didn't find it terribly funny, apart from the bit with Gillian Anderson at the end. And I don't think that most people who aren't already convinced are going to take it as a joke, they're going to take it as "You're either going to do what we say or we're going to kill you." - not _seriously_, but it's still threatening.

Imagine if there were ads on the TV that said "Who here is anti-abortion?" with the people who said yes being blown up. I'd find that pretty threatening.

[broin.livejournal.com]

*I* read it as 'you're blowing yourself up'. And for me, that's not hyperbolic.

I lunched regularly with a senior policy guy in SEPA. After T in the Park or one of those concerts, he drove past and was absolutely despairing for days. Here's 75,000 people in the perfect young demographic leaving _so many_ tonnes of litter blowing around on the breeze.

So if whatever's been tried before isn't working, a little TNT might help.

Also, I put this ad in the same bucket as the cows on the Irn Bru billboard.

[andrewducker]

But they aren't blowing themselves up. If they'd been shown doing that (complete with as much blood as you like), then I'd have thought it was an awesome advert. Instead we see them being blown up by someone else. Which just comes across as combative and frankly pretty stupid.

[andrewducker]

Ooh - on the littering front, there were fantastic ads in Belfast last time I was there, showing litterers being spurned by their friends/potential girlfriends/boyfriend/etc. Because if they didn't pick up their litter, then they weren't the kind of person you'd want to hang around with. I'm entirely in favour of those.

Heck, show them having committed suicide, because they couldn't take the loneliness. That'll do it :->

[broin.livejournal.com]

There were tiny posters on bins in Dublin saying 'Litter Is Disgusting' (with an associated tv ad campaign and billboards etc). In 2008, someone shooped a 'Lisbon Is Disgusting' and replaced hundreds of them.

Lemme think on the ad some more. I'm about to start a new job in 45 minutes and could take that much time to knot a tie. ;)

[andrewducker]

Oh God. A tie?

You have my sympathy. I haven't had to wear one in a couple of years now, and I don't miss it.

Good luck with the new job!

[broin.livejournal.com]

Just a tie for the first day, looks like. :) (I read a great book on masculinity that referred to ties as 'slave collars' and it made, uh, an impression).

And thanks, the job seems really good. Hardcore Excel.

[andrewducker]

Oooh, cool. Much better than that softcore stuff.

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

I absolutely love this. best thing I've seen in ages.


and no, I'm not joking.

[chuma.livejournal.com]

I concur. It seems utterly stupid and pointless.

[meico.livejournal.com]

Wow. That was a bit sick. It actually made me a bit ill to watch the whole thing through. The first one- portraying the murder of school children- was especially tasteless.

[sarcasm]
Being someone who is actively for environmental stewardship I really appreciate being portrayed as a child murderer- thanks.
[/sarcasm]

[daisyflip.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when I heard it had been withdrawn, I was looking forward to seeing it as it sounded like something I'd find funny and try to defend. But...don't think it got the point over and don't think it was funny*. And now people will be talking about how offended they are and forgetting the message.

*Nothing to do with being offended (I can easily see something's offensive and still find it guilt-inducingly funny)

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Withdrawing an ad is pretty meaningless these days. Links to it are cropping up all over the place, specifically [i]because[/i] because it was withdrawn.

[andrewducker]

I believe this is a variant of the Streisand Effect.

[luckylove.livejournal.com]

I don't get it at all. And now I hope that the people behind this advert get their heads exploded. It makes me want to turn the thermostat up to 30, open all the doors and windows and switch on all the lights just to spite them and I'm fairly certain that's not the sort of impact they were hoping for. If this is their idea of good advertising then I will not be supporting them.