It Grows On Trees

Coen too Far on Latest Reality Anti-Coal Ad?

So this is another fun, in-your-face spot for Reality, Al Gore's anti-coal campaign. But part of the hype that is was written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen.

And I'm like, really? Why?

Hey this is great stuff, but did they really need the A-list brothers (unless because they'd write/direct pro bono, maybe)? Just wondering.

Whatever — it got me blogging, and the media buzzing, so I guess that's a win. It's still great creative and a killer strategy.

Greenpeace Recycles JFK

And the result is both creepy and cliché.

Look, at this point, invoking the Apollo project and the civil rights movement of the 1960's to stir support for a green economic makeover has been thoroughly done.

We did it two years ago (pre-Astronaut*) when we rebranded the world's largest biofuel producer, Poet. The "We" campaign did it earlier this year. Thomas Friedman (2004) and Al Gore (2007) have each called for a new "Apollo program" to reverse global warming. And before any of us, the Apollo Alliance started it in 2004.

I like what Greenpeace has done in the past. And I'm a fan of AKQA, which produced this. But the CG repurposing of JFK's speech completely upstages the message. I wonder if by reanimating the departed hero, Greenpeace has really put a nail in the coffin of his inspiration.

Hat tip to adrants, which has apparently delighted in covering Greenpeace's advertising over the years.

* When we named our shop "Astronaut" in early 2007, it was to invoke the mojo of those "star travellers," not to link the green movement to the moonshot of '69. If that means anything.

Giving Coal a Black Eye

And a dose of reality.

Few can throw a punch like this like Al Gore, who has teamed with a posse of eco-heavyweights to call out the clean coal whitewash with a new site/organization called "Reality," with a killer URL: action.reality.org

I thought the "we" campaign was refreshingly in-your-face. But this one made me giggle with delight.

Via Al's twitter feed....