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PSA’s Gone Wild – Falling Bears and Perverted Soap

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by Tommy Christopher | 11:44 am, November 23rd, 2009

» 6 comments

psa Public Service announcements have come a long way since Smokey the Bear sternly assigned us all with the task of preventing forest fires and Woodsy the Owl asked us to “Give a hoot, don’t pollute!”

Nowadays, the trend is toward edgy, “Look at me!”-type spots designed more to generate buzz than to deliver a message. This is exemplified by two new environmental spots (via AdFreak) that are so wrong, they’re just…wrong.

The first is a UK spot for PlaneStupid.com that aims to showcase the environmental impact of air travel in weirdly metaphoric terms. The spot is somewhat graphic, and like September’s WWF ad, disturbingly evocative of 9/11:

Since they’re not based in the US, perhaps Plane Stupid can be forgiven the 9/11 imagery, although their logo and their donation pitch don’t help any: (emphasis mine)

We won’t pretend sponsoring us makes up for taking a weekend break in Prague, or flying to the Copenhagen conference. But we promise that we won’t spend it on fancy chairs for our office. To tell the truth, we don’t even have an office. All we have is a burning desire to stop domestic flights and a spectacular plan… which we can’t afford on our own.

I contacted PlaneStupid.com for comment, and I’m awaiting their reponse.

The second spot, a parody of SC Johnson’s “Scrubbing Bubbles,” is from the makers of Method soap, and it’s supposed to make you support ingredient labeling of cleaning products. The clip is funny and disturbing at the same time, creepily making its point. On the other hand, I guarantee you’ll spend part of your day singing the parody jingle, and the rest of your day trying to get the Bill O’Reilly-esque catchphrase “Use the loofah” out of your head.

A Shine-tastic job!!!

While the ad is certainly memorable, the cause attached seems more designed to deliver the message that Method is awesome and everyone else sucks. I’m sorry, but I don’t see ingredient labeling as having much of an impact.Anyone who cares enough probably already uses greener products, and I don’t see the average American looking at a label and saying, “Dialkyldimethylammonium methyl sulfate? Eff that!!!”

The PSA’s of old had only 30 to 60 seconds to make their point, whereas today, all you need is an attention-getting hook to get people to your website. Perhaps it’s just as well. Poor old Woodsy Owl would probably be branded a Marxist socialist freak today, and wind up as a plate of hot wings.

911, Bill O'Reilly, Dialkyldimethylammonium methyl sulfate, environment, green soap, perverted bubbles, plane stupid, polar bear, polar bear rain, psa, Tommy Christopher, twitter, use the loofah, World Wildlife Fund, WWF

http://glassbead.info Magister

I don’t see the 9/11 imagery in the polar bear ad. Is it because there are tall buildings, falling objects or sky? Maybe I’m missing something, but if everything involving one of these concepts is going to be “evocative of 9/11″ or off-limits, speech in this country (and the world, since this is a UK ad) will become severely limited.
BuckwheatPicard

@magister
jet planes in a downtown and bodies raining form the sky?
have you not seen (or heard in some cases) the footage?
http://glassbead.info Magister

@BuckwheatPicard: I originally saw the polar bear commercial last week via Gawker and I rewatched it after Mr. Christopher invoked 9/11. I realize that it may still be a sore spot with some people, but there has to come a time when all video isn’t viewed through that prism, especially when the buildings aren’t that tall and the commercial is from overseas.

For almost a generation, trash cans were blowing up around London, but it had no effect on our media; The Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg, but there was a movie made about it in ’97; Planes occasionally crash and kill lots of people, but the subject is often fodder for drama and even the occasional comedy.

I just think seeing 9/11 in this uneffective ad is quite a reach.
Tommy Christopher

Magister, I think you’re just being contrary here. The evocation is not subtle at all. As I said in my piece, the fact that it’s a UK spot means it might not have been intentional, but to those of us for whom this remains a “sore spot,” it ain’t a reach.
http://glassbead.info Magister

@Tommy: I don’t mean to sound contrary, though perhaps I have a contrarian stance on the 9/11 imagery question because I’m of the mind that it happened almost ten years ago, it could be time to get past it and not be reminded in every image that is remotely similar.

Otherwise, I don’t actually think the advertisement effectively communicates it’s message, so that might be a reason to rag on it, but I really didn’t see 9/11 in it. Not to mention that if the blogs here weren’t reposting the ad, then those most affected by that day would never have seen it.
http://glassbead.info Magister

PS/Disclaimer: Obviously I wasn’t in New York on that fateful day, but neither was most of the world. Though the imagery was quite vivid, most of us just watched it on tv.