Climate change: put on a happy face

Greenbang can barely contain her cackling thanks to a new report from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts.

Apparently, you know all those ads encouraging us to think a bit more about the impact of our actions so our whole planet doesn’t wither into a plug of asthmatic black sludge and take us all with it? Well, they’re all a bit downbeat. Advertisers need to turn that frown upside down.

Here’s the summary:

• Campaigns should avoid being ‘miserable, gloomy and bleak’ (despite the potentially catastrophic consequences of not acting), instead emphasising that taking action on climate change is ‘normal’ – encouraging more people to engage with it.
• Campaigns should recognise the importance of fairness – i.e. Everyone needs to be seen to be doing their bit, including government and industry.
• Campaigns should be personally relevant. Campaigns should relate to our environment, not the environment and should use insight from commercial ads to engage emotional responses.
• Campaigns should identify the opportunities for individuals in taking action. For example, consumer research shows that millions of people desire a lower-stress, less consumption orientated lifestyle; this could form one basis for a social marketing campaign.

What next? Al Gore remakes An Inconvenient Truth as an upbeat addition to the the High School Musical franchise? We start trying to downplay the impending climatic awfulness by changing the term global warming into climate change? Oh yeah…