You may have seen this on other blogs in the last day or so, a print ad apparently for the WWF out of Brazil. It is beyond tasteless. I wasn’t going to comment on it, but then our tipline made it clear that a video spot was also produced.
The caption in the upper right reads: “The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it.” The ad first starting becoming well known when it won the best of 2009 award at www.oneclub.org, which apparently promotes excellence in advertising. (UPDATE: it appears the ad award has been removed from this website but here is a screencap.)
But World Wildlife Fund is rejecting the ad, saying it was released without authorization by the Brazilian Ad agency DDB Brazil (www.ddb.com).
WWF condemned it, saying it was “categorically not solicited nor endorsed” by the organization. Looking at their main website though, http://www.panda.org/ you’d never know they are condemning this ad. The other WWF website does mention it here. Now according to Adfreak, they are accepting “joint blame” for the print ad.
But given the existence of this video, it appears they approved at least a production budget. The video is professionally done with top of the line CGI. It’s not some “rogue” that did this on a shoestring budget.
The video spot showing 2 planes flying into the twin towers, followed by even more, is probably the most tasteless and stupid environmental advertisement I’ve ever seen. If the goal was to shock people, it worked. But I doubt the shock effect is positive for WWF. What it does is piss people off.
Watch the video and see what I mean.
UPDATE: it appears DDB/WWF has made a DMCA complaint with YouTube. I expect DeSmog Blog’s Kevin Grandia and Climate Progress’ Joe Romm to express shock and outrage any minute now.
Alternate source to the video can be found here. http://creativity-online.com/work/wwf-tsunami-%28tvc%29/17193
In my opinion, it boggles the mind that anyone or any organization could be so dense as to not predict the public reaction to such a print ad, much less a video. I don’t care how noble you think your cause is, this hijacking of an American tragedy for earth awareness, is not only callous and insulting to the thousands of families affected by this tragedy, but it is probably the single most disgusting and stupid application of eco advertising I’ve ever witnessed.
The WWF initial “denial” of association with this ad just isn’t credible and is falling apart. Have you no shame?
From Hot Air:
WWF is finally admitting that they did play some role in approving the print spot, issuing a joint statement with the ad agency, DDB, that “the inexperience of some professionals on both sides” is to blame. And yet:
Sergio Valente, president of DDB Brasil, said the ad was presented to the WWF in Brazil in December 2008 and approved; it then ran once in a small local paper.
“When I saw it, I said, ‘Stop running that ad,’” Mr. Valente said…
A DDB Brasil spokesperson in Sao Paulo said a video version of the ad being circulated on the internet was not done or authorized by the agency or the client. She said DDB execs first saw the video, which features slightly different copy, on the internet and don’t know who created it.
Really? So some wily amateur video producer out there happened to stumble across a print ad that only ran once in South America and was so taken with it that he churned out a slick animated version on his own dime? Humor me for a moment and assume that this is, in fact, the handiwork of DDB. If so, exactly how many “inexperienced professionals” contributed to — and approved — the spot?
This spot comes from an ad agency employed by the same people that say “We Need a New Global Climate Deal“. Good luck with that, with this revelation, you’ve just committed global stupicide.
h/t to WUWT reader Corey
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I thought this was a tad ironic turn of phrase coming from WWF’s Guidance Principles,
“build concrete conservation solutions through a combination of field based projects, policy initiatives, capacity building and education work!” What on Earth does that lot mean?
All that concrete could cause an UHI, all that CO2 from the cement production, reinforcing steel production, the shuttering, delivery fuel costs & that of materials & more CO2 emissions, the infrastructure that goes with it, etc. I thought they were supposed to be trying to stop Big Oil et al concreting over the planet. They don’t seem to mention anywhere anything about conducting their campaigns with the highest of moral & ethical standards, that just wouldn’t do, unless I missed something:-)) Seems to me any time some third world country, especially in Africa, trys to do some “capacity building and education work” WWF go out of their way to stop it happening.
I have no love for WWF (just had a gander at the site – makes me want to puke), but I don’t think the video ad was theirs. The angle and quality are very different. Have a look here:
http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2009/09/911-was-nothing-according-to-new-wwf-ad.html
There’s a lot of chatter on the ad blogs about it being a fake too.
We spend a lot of effort trying to debunk what we think is shoddy work – let’s not get sucked in when someone seems to be trying to discredit WWF by creating a video nasty and blaming them (by putting the logo at the end).
Having said that, there are two issues that make me want to reconsider, and I’ll keep an open mind:
1. The picture ad was authorised by WWF (however mistakenly)
2. The ad agency in question has called for it to be removed on copyright grounds.
(1) could be a legitimate mistake on the part of WWF, and (2) could be over-zealous ad guys trying to make a mark for themselves and making a huge blunder.
So stay skeptical….
OK, “puke” was a bit harsh. Made me a bit nauseous, all that Al Gore Warming nonsense.
re: Stefan (02:17:16)
i agree with your comments.
that’s the message i take from this sad/bad ad.
From Creativity Online:
http://creativity-online.com/
This ad, and video, has shown their true colors. At least people know who they are, and how far they will go.
“…beyond tasteless…”
Any more so than those suicidal animals of a few years ago? My psyche is still recovering from seeing that poor monkey hanging himself. And (The Horror!!) that despondent kangaroo throwing itself before a train…
And now this!
“The only threat to the planet is the Sun going nova in 5 million years time. And it won’t even notice.”
FYI, according to current understanding, the Sun is too small to go nova. But, as it ages it gets brighter, so in 500 million years that will push the habitable zone out past Earth.
In about 5 billion years, the Sun will leave the Main Sequence and start expanding, certainly engulfing Mercury, possibly Venus and Earth too.
Video no longer available. Too bade no one appears to have snagged the video and posted it elsewhere to keep this disgusting display around as evidence.
Earth will long be dead before the sun exits the main sequence. The last prediction I saw was the Earth had only about 125 million years left to support life as we know it. CO2 depletion and the oceans outgasing to space will result in our demise long before the sun gets too hot. Life will go on inside rocks but not much on the surface.
And tsunamis are now a part of AGW, thanks to Gore and the WWF.
Nothing like self-righteousness to make lying acceptable to extremists.
Alternate video can be found here. http://creativity-online.com/work/wwf-tsunami-%28tvc%29/17193
Please, if somebody knows them, tell all the names of those who fund the WWF.
These must be known by whole humanity.
I only know one: His royal highness Prince Philip.
More amok AGW propaganda from World Wildlife Fund aided/abetted by Canadian MSM.
…-
“Ontario shuts 4 coal-fired units
Ontario is shutting down four coal units, two at Nanticoke and two at Lambton Generating Station, by 2010 in a move the World Wildlife Fund says will make the province a leader in fighting climate change.”
http://www.thestar.com/unassigned/article/690432
” Don S. (05:04:32) :
To our Aussie friends, thanks for the comforting words mates.
@Stu & Paul Vaughan: Isn’t it time to rethink some of your associations?”
Hi Don.
These days I don’t line up with either side of politics. I’ve never been particularly political but when I was younger (I’m still not that old) I voted green, which I guess meant left wing. I’ve also joined the odd forest rally, spent a great deal of time in native reforestation, urban community organic agriculture, never bought a car, etc… I still consider myself green but perhaps more in the sense that Crosspatch describes (thanks for the post btw! 🙂 ie, not very political but deeply felt.
I think it’s his last paragraph (01:44:50) which really resonates with me here though – I’ll have difficulty repeating what he’s said in my own words because I think he’s already done a fine job. It’s exactly what I feel. Basically I worry about my friends worrying so much…
The message is getting uglier and dumber and louder by the day. The media pull and spin is so deep, the vaneer of authority and certainty so great…
I’m tired of the hubris.
I think his last paragraph resonates the most with me, in that I hate the way people are being manipulated to feel
PS, sorry- needed to clean up (delete) the last sentence in my previous post.
Don’t you think it is time for these snakes to receive a doses of its own venom?
that crying face in glacier is also fake, see here
http://northwardho.blogspot.com/2009/09/crying-face-in-glacier-fake.html
Do you have an E-mail address for HRH Prince Philip?
I would argue that the hype of such an extreme viewpoint undermines its effectiveness. Whoever the intended audience (I can only see the still frame above, not the video), smart people resent being manipulated.
If no one wants to claim credit for the ad, I’d imagine it will end up in the same digital trash-heap as the kangaroos-throwing-themselves-before-trains propaganda ad – in other words, everyone will forget about it.
Equally wrong-headed, but far more insidious (in my opinion), will be last night’s “Weather and Wildfires” on the conservative Jim Lehrer News Hour, a primetime broadcast. Another product of “Climate Central” (Lehrer has shown others recently), the video has all the earmarks of mainstream, objective journalism. It’s anything but.
The video link may not be downloadable yet, but the text of the story is at:
http://climatecentral.org/video/washington/science-behind-the-story.php
The story links the high temps on the West coast with recent fires and once again attempts to link the pine beetle spread to global warming.
The premise that the current mountain pine beetle infestation is a result of anything other than a natural cycle is a speculative argument, the certitude and alarm of Wikipedia notwithstanding.
Here’s another YouTube link to the same video. Don’t know how long this one might work for.
Nogw (08:30:02) :
Please, if somebody knows them, tell all the names of those who fund the WWF.
These must be known by whole humanity.
Nogw (08:32:32) :
I only know one: His royal highness Prince Philip.
—
His Royal Highness has said that he wants to be reincarnated as a deadly virus so that he can destroy most of the human race. And his son, The Right Charlie of Clarence House, is well known for his intelligent scientific approach (sorry, irony). Well at least he stamps his little feet because he wants his precious feudal system back.
Why do we have to put up with these cranks? or the abominable WWF?
They are an offence to all the human race, not just Americans.
Dear Anthony
We just published a post on our weather blog protesting the ad: http://www.metsul.com/blog. The title is in Portuguese and English (Despicable and Disgusting). We tell the same story you reported in Portuguese to our Brazilian audience and we include the pictures and the names of the Brazilians citizens who died on 9/11 in New York.
Best wishes !
REPLY: thank you Alexandre, for speaking out on this issue. – Anthony
Repugnant Filth… and I am also refering to the producers and funders of this little gem. If this breaks cover to the wider media, WWF is toast.
Don S. (05:04:32) “@Stu & Paul Vaughan: Isn’t it time to rethink some of your associations?”
I have certainly “rethought” my “associations”. Within 15 days of presenting a substantial finding about local natural climate, my funding was slashed to zero. My access to 100s of my files was suddenly blocked without warning. Note for the severely naive: Science, the education system, & the environmental movement have become corrupted; this constitutes a threat to nature & civilization.
I firmly oppose over-consumption, greed, irresponsible land-use, & toxicity, but CO2 is not toxic (and it does not cause tsunamis). What I want from climate modelers – in order for them to earn my trust – is a forecast of El Nino, La Nina, & regional rainfall patterns that is accurate for decades into the future — it should work like a tide table. When climate science gets to that stage, statistically analyzing the relationship between CO2 & climate might be interesting (& possible).
These people who are promoting eco-terrorism with this video possibly haven’t thought through the natural response to an overstated case — a counter-agency could arise targeting the rain forests & our oceans, for example. Emotionally-militant ‘greens’ should understand that nature will be at more risk in times of instability. Restraint is in order. (Don’t give the devil a reason to finance a strike on the jewels.)