First, here’s the problem, as a series of related and
overlapping questions:
- Why aren’t average Americans more worried about, and engaged with, climate change?
- Why, if a majority of Americans “believe” that climate change is real, do so few rate it as a high priority for action?
- Why, in this hottest ever year on record, aren’t average Americans badgering their representatives and senators in Congress to DO SOMETHING, and do it NOW?
- Why, after years of messaging about environmental issues in general, and climate change in particular, is the climate change message not gaining more traction?
- Why, when asked to rank their worries did Americans place climate change almost dead last on their list?
Everything is sold to us with advertising. EVERYTHING.
Think I’m exaggerating? Here’s a
partial list of things that are hawked with aggressive ad campaigns.
- Pharmaceuticals (ED, diabetes, Afib…)
- Education (trade schools, on-line MBAs…)
- Dating (Match, eHarmony…)
- Cars
- Lawyers
- Movies
- Sitcoms (with more advertising interrupting them)
- Gifts
- TVs
- Lawn care
- Hair care
- Deodorant
- Tech
- Games
- Baby food
- Diapers (infant, toddler, adult…)
- Fast food
- Slow food
- The American Petroleum Industry
- Koch Industries
- Political candidates
- Political opinions
- Television news
- Child care
- Elder care
- Insurance
- Good causes
- Pain killers
- PSAs (smoking is bad, drinking is bad, drugs are bad… unless you’re talking about prescribed meds, and then… see “Pharmaceuticals”)
- Love
Americans are fluent in the language of advertising. Most of us have been marinated in advertising
since birth, and respond to it on an almost cellular level. The familiar cadence of the snake oil
salesman is deeply understood and being used to sell us everything from denture
cream to the conviction that fracking is a benign way to bring Americans clean
energy and more jobs.
Most folks think they’re pretty jaded about
advertising. It’s common for people to
say that they “know how to tune that stuff out” and “don’t really believe” in
the pitch. That’s not the case,
alas. Advertising works. Despite protestations that we’re “too
sophisticated” and can resist the lure of the jingle and the slogan, we are in
fact responding to and being influenced by all of that rootsy guitar music, and
those images of babies and handsome people having fun. Why?
Because modern, sophisticated ad techniques take advantage of how your deep
brain operates.
Effective advertising isn’t all about giving you the information
you need to make a rational choice. It
isn’t only aimed at the prefrontal cortex, where decisions are made. It also cleverly aims its messages at the
limbic system – the “lizard brain” that deals in emotions, memory, and
arousal. And that, of course, is why ads
traffic in babies, syrupy music, holiday memories, frolicking families and
beautiful, healthy people doing aspirational things, even if those images are
laughably unrelated what they’re selling.
While your prefrontal cortex is scoffing and thinking
“That’s nonsense! Cooper and Britnee
aren’t going to love me more if I take them to Disneyland!” the limbic system is listening, too, and
absorbing the lesson. You KNOW the
truth, but begin to associate the images of a loving family with the Disney
brand – whether you want to or not.
Watch one of those beer ads featuring healthy 20-somethings on a hike,
and while you KNOW that buying that brand of brew isn’t going to make you
adventurous and outdoorsy and slim, your limbic system is buying at least part
of what they’re selling. You’re being
aroused by the music, and feeling the sensation of happy good times, whether or
not you actually believe a word of the voice-over.
Advertising also works by the simple power of
repetition. Hear one simple message over
and over and over again, and you learn it.
For example, I know that Arby’s has “all the meats!” I know DiGiorno is “better than
delivery!” And I’ve learned a LOT about
Koch Industries since they started running ads on the Rachel Maddow Show. What have I learned? That they’re a great place to work, and care
deeply about water quality in the slums of Brazil. I have no idea if either of those things are
objectively true – but I sure learned them!
The Koch Brothers know that advertising sells economic ideas
and political beliefs as well as it sells products. The Petroleum Council of American knows that
it can sell intense pride in America, fear of unemployment, AND “drill, baby –
drill!” disguised in a soothing 30 second spot about “clean energy from right
here at home,” featuring an anodyne cast of blandly diverse actors. And they know that if they keep repeating
those messages – those simple, clear messages – they’ll eventually move the
dial on public opinion.
In short – if you want to sell something, hire a good
advertising agency and get your billboards and 30 second spots out there. And keep at it, too, with simple,
easy-to-grasp messages packaged to arouse the lizard brain. It’s only a matter of time before your
audience associates the feelings triggered by the carefully chosen images and
music with your simple message, and bingo!
You’ve gained traction. You’ve gotten
people fired up and ready to do something.
Which begs the question: if the Kochs and BP and Exxon Mobil
and the American Petroleum Council and their profit-driven, emitting ilk are
out there advertising like crazy, why is there no ad campaign aimed at firing
up Americans to take personal and collective action on climate change? Why are there no PSAs repeating incessantly
that climate change is already upon us, and it’s time to give up meat, turn
down the heat, and call your Senator?
Why aren’t there any billboards hammering home the point that the time
is NOW and we have to act? Why aren’t
there any pop-ups on Yahoo’s landing page intoning “In case you were wondering
– this is what climate change looks like!” and featuring a picture of flood
victims in South Carolina? Why aren’t
there any messages with soothing, folksy guitar songs and video of soldiers on
patrol somewhere in the Middle East, talking about working together as
Americans to lead the world on climate action?!
Mostly, of course, because climate change doesn’t have an
industry organization. Climate change
has many, many activists fighting against it in many and various ways, but it
doesn’t have a single powerful lobby.
There are multifarious groups working for clean energy, carbon
legislation, and so forth – but no ONE big group that has the financial clout
to take out an ad campaign or two. There
are individuals – from movie stars to nobodies like me – tweeting away in a
frenzy of intensity, but we seem to be mostly tweeting to ourselves.
Information about climate change is available, to be
sure. It’s covered in the media –
although mostly as a “debate” or “conversation.” It’s in popular culture: take “Years of
Living Dangerously,” for which there was a robust ad campaign. But that ad campaign was for one TV show –
and in order for an individual to engage more deeply, it was still necessary
for them to take the leap and opt in.
And to do that requires a level of motivation as a baseline.
At the moment, most Americans are NOT motivated by and
engaged with climate change. Whether or
not they “believe” or are “very concerned,” they aren’t ready to storm the
barricades. They aren’t primed to take
the leap and take personal responsibility for their actions to address it. Most Americans aren’t tuned in to the same
frequency as those of us who are already passionately committed to doing
something about it.
Many people say they “believe in” climate change but then
are honestly gobsmacked when someone suggests to them that climate change is
more of a personal threat to them than, say, terrorism. They don’t get the connection between climate
change and their breakfast – or climate change and their health – or climate
change and their homeowners insurance.
Advertising has the power to dramatically change that
dynamic. Advertising has the power to
put climate change at the forefront of the national conversation. It has the power to carry simple, bold
messages, like:
It’s time to do everything in our power to slash emissions
and slow the progression of climate change.
You’ve been lied to.
You’re in danger.
This is urgent! This is happening NOW – to YOU!
Nuance can come later.
The thrilling emotional impetus must come first. Before we get a groundswell of citizen
action, people need to get fired up.
Before we get EVERYONE out in the streets marching and demanding that
Congress stop lying and take action, we need them moved, and touched, and
energized… and furious.
And to get them there, they need to be SOLD ON climate
change. Sold on it – with advertising.
We have the power of truth on our side. There’s no need to feel grubby or
dishonest. Advertising isn’t necessarily
or inherently about selling snake oil – it’s about influencing people by using
emotional connections and repetition of easily-grasped concepts. The climate change movement needs to use this
American lingua franca to our benefit!
Now, there might be a billionaire out there who is on the
right side of history vis-à-vis climate change and would be willing to splash
the cash on a few gripping PSAs. In
fact, I am probably going right over to Kickstarter after I publish this. But I think there’s a critical role for the
government here, too.
There’s been much chatter about the need for a “new greatest
generation” and a “war time level of mobilization.” It got me thinking – specifically, about the
fact that during WWII, the federal government created the United States Office
of War Information to:
“…formulate and carry out, through the use of press, radio, motion picture, and other facilities, information programs designed to facilitate the development of an informed and intelligent understanding, at home and abroad, of the status and progress of the war effort and of the war policies, activities, and aims of the Government.”
I’m calling on the next president of the United States to
immediately upon taking office, create a United States Office of Climate Change
Information, to:
“…formulate and carry out, through the use of press, radio, TV, motion picture, electronic and other platforms, information programs designed to: facilitate the development of an informed and intelligent understanding of the imminent threat of climate change to each American; report on the progress of the Government’s efforts and activities devoted to reducing emissions, developing renewable energy sources, and lowering the nation’s carbon footprint; provide information on the climate change policies, activities, and aims of the Government; and let each citizen know both how critically urgent it is that they pitch in and do their part in combating this planet-wide catastrophe and that it is vital that the United States of America lead the world.”
In a word: advertising.
I’m envisaging advertising by the government as analogous to
the war information in WWII: part of a broader strategy. There were many governmental agencies and
actions involved in mobilizing for war.
In the case of climate change I think that broad spectrum communications
– advertising – is an immediate need and requisite first step.
If we elect a President Sanders, we know he’ll be focused on
climate change from Day One. But in
order to actually do anything – and do it fast enough – he can’t have Congress
blocking him every step of the way. That
means he has to have all Americans on board to either chuck out or change the
positions of the liars and deniers who are currently stalking the halls of the
House and Senate. Those who suggest that
we need a “war time mobilization effort” have it right. Part of that must include a vigorous,
effective advertising campaign the likes of which Americans haven’t seen since
WWII.
That’s where an energized, informed, activist American
people comes into it. The messaging I
propose should be designed to hit people like they’ve been gut shot, and let
them know that years of inaction by foot-dragging, heavily-lobbied, and
bought-off politicians has led us to this perilous position, facing a future of
hellish heat waves, devastating droughts, rampant “once in 1,000 years” storms,
epic deluges, terrible public health challenges, inundated coastal cities, and
hordes of frantic climate change refugees.
This isn’t the time for business as usual. It’s not the time for long explanations. It’s not the time for nuance and for coaxing
people along with rational explanations for why carbon dioxide can, yes, be a
very good thing (in moderation) for our friends the plants, but at higher concentrations
in the atmosphere beings to trap more heat which….. zzzzzz…..
The years of teaching and educating and imploring and
exhorting Americans to get worried about polar bears and shrinking ice sheets
at the far reaches of our globe just hasn’t mobilized enough of us. Yes, it’s mobilized some. I am not overlooking all the excellent
education and communication that’s been done.
I was at the Seattle People’s Climate march, for Pete’s sake!
But our “leaders” in DC are very well aware that most of us
simply aren’t fussed enough about climate change for them to pay it much heed,
either. They read the polls. They see where public opinion sits. So they know they can keep on taking the
money and lying like rugs (looking right at you, Senator McConnell) and not get
voted out of office. They know full well
that they can hem and haw, splutter and obfuscate, deny, declare they’re not
scientists, throw snowballs, and suffer no consequences. And so while the dial has been moving
recently – and President Obama has been raising a bit of a ruckus all by
himself – we’re not moving in the right direction fast enough.
It’s time to crank it up to 11.
We need an electorate that’s furious at government inaction
on climate change and will vote for politicians who promise to take immediate
action. We need an electorate who won’t
put up with their lies any longer, and demand that their representatives do
their will on this most urgent and pressing of issues. We also need a population that is fired up
enough to take the personal actions required, like giving up or rationing meat,
driving less, buying green and renewable and local products, and more.
