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Shift Happens

Matilda Lee | 17.05.11

Part of what makes Ricky Gervais’s opening speech at the Golden Globe awards this year  so hilarious is that, for the most part, his jokes poking fun at Hollywood stars contain kernels of truth. It is the unmentionable subjects as much as it is the context – in this case a very public glittery awards ceremony – which makes the jokes go so far.

In the environmental world, communicating the taboo is a regular preoccupation: we point fingers, shout from rooftops and draw attention to truths people would rather not have to face: climate change threatening our civilisation, deforestation making the world uninhabitable to humans, waste mountains, toxic overload...

But the outcome is not as we expected. As environmentalists push to get the message across and wait for the serious action – the cultural shifts, the tipping points – that will ultimately tackle these issues, it’s worth doing a bit of navel gazing. How was our delivery? Green campaigners and communicators now have an opportunity to rethink the idea of the medium as the message. As environmentalist and poet Wendell Berry said ‘Be joyful although you know the facts’. It’s a hard one, I agree, but the idea of changing the context to change behaviour has been gaining traction. Here are some examples of how it has worked:

Global Cool campaigns to get people to live greener lives. Its Do-it-in-public campaign is an attempt to promote public transport...without mentioning the environmental benefits of public transport. Instead it promotes the ‘me time’ you get when travelling by bus or train – time to read, listen to music, talk to friends, meet new people. Its ‘Turn up the style, turn down the heat’ campaign works along the same concept – promoting the fashion (fab knitwear), health (better for skin) and financial benefits of lowering your home heating – not the environmental benefits!

Friends of the Earth’s new campaign aims to change the context of the usually deadly boring topic of conserving home energy in its sexy new video. As FOE campaigner Dave Timms says: 'If everyone was this turned on by insulation and energy-efficient boilers British homes would be a lot warmer, greener and cheaper to heat'. Nuff said.

The Fun Theory works in the belief that fun can change human behaviour . Can we get people to use the stairs more/obey the speed limit/throw rubbish in the bin – if we make it fun? The answer, they found, is yes you can.

Laughter as medicine

And there really is green humour. Pointing out just how absurd some aspects of normal society are can be riotously funny. Reverend Billy & the church of life after shopping is a prime example. When Rev. Billy shows up at your local Starbucks to exorcise the cash register with a gospel choir in tow you know there is a heaven above. This and other antics have gotten him on prime time news TV.

In campaign speak, he aims to get people to buy less and buy local. But he gets the message across with the anti-shopocolypse crusade. ‘I don’t believe that spiritual people need to be super serious and boring’ he has said. His film ‘What would Jesus buy ?’ makes you see beyond the creed of unconscious consumerism .

Finally, the Yes Men – the duo who perform ‘identity correction’ by infiltrating events and delivering sober but shocking speaking engagements at meetings. While making CEOs sweat, the Yes Men create an alternative reality where corporations do the right thing. The classic example is Dow accepting full responsibility for the Bhopal disaster with a $12 billion plan to compensate victims. You can watch their short films on BabelGum (check out the BBC interview with a certain Jude Finisterre ‘spokesman’ for Dow Chemicals).

Watching a couple of Rev Billy sermons or Yes Men impersonations will make you feel differently. The world is an absurd place, but shift happens. Help bring it on with some serious fun. 

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