Guerrilla Marketing: a resource for environmental communication?

by Andrea Stecich

Covered market in Valencia. It’s 9 A.M. Careful gazes scan tomatoes, more expensive than usual, and are enamoured by bright colors of the fabrics and clothes. Suddenly, the butcher starts to sing an aria waving his ax, followed closely by the greengrocer, and then the cheese seller, the cloth merchant, the florist and so on. The music and the songs are spreading more and more under the market’s cover. Some astonished but delighted passers-by are singing softly a classic music opera’s tune.

Here's an example of guerrilla marketing, organized by the Valencia’s Opera to promote their shows. In slang we talk about flash mobs and it’s one of the most interesting (and less invasive) aspects of guerrilla marketing. Indeed, the name immediately calls to mind the idea of urban warfare: the aim is to win, neighborhood after neighborhood, everyone's attention on a particular topic. The methods are numerous, often original, and bordering on the illegal: stickers, posters, stencils’ adhesion on all available surfaces (floors, walls, arcades, shop windows) and in large quantities, creation of flash mobs and viral web campaigns. If the message is able to disrupt the passer-by, maybe desecrating the usual visual and cultural codes, the result can be explosive. 

The subject is very interesting and appealing, so that Turin’s Fitzlab association decided to organize a meeting about it. At the conference’s table were sitting Luisella Carnelli (Fitzcarraldo association), Carolina Lucchesini (Officine Corsare’s co-founder) and Nicola Facciotto (Kalatà advertising agency). They explained that this particular marketing interpretation, born in 1984, aims to go beyond traditional communication via two pathways: unlimited originality, up to breaking laws, and viral invasive messages. Using these weapons, the traditional communication’s effectiveness results enhanced, reaching (actively) a great number of citizens. This unordinary “fire power” costs: typically, a guerrilla marketing campaign is more expensive than a traditional one, because basic communication’s costs (guerrilla can’t do much without them) are added to those typical ones of guerrilla marketing, which often requires hundreds or thousands of stickers, stencils, flyers or postcards.

However, in front of the positive experience represented by Officine Corsare (dealing a socio-political theme), a question arises: what kind of application for guerrilla in environmental communication field? Speakers don’t say anything about it due to the subject’s complexity and variability. It’s not easy to judge it. However, if in cultural sectors, by nature highly creative ones, unconventional approaches to promotion and communication are tolerated, in the environmental field conditions seem to be generally different, limiting the number of available tools for a guerrilla approach. Among these ones, flash mobs and viral web campaign, if properly customized for each case, represent valuable tools to realize an unforgettable and participated communication campaign about environmental protection’s issues. In summary, guerrilla marketing is a surplus value for every informative campaign, but only if declined to be appropriate depending on the scope, particularly in environmental communication, as well represented by the awareness campaign, realized by Auckland City (New Zealand), on correct waste collection, named “Beautify your city”.

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Velò – Dico: explain how you advertise, and I’ll tell you who you really are

by Irene Gozellino

We all know how to distinguish a sustainable product from one that it is not, however,we hardly know how to distinguish a sustainable advertisement from one that is not. That aside, what is a sustainable advertising? Perhaps a non-invasive one? Yes, but above all, an advertisement that, in addition to promoting products “good” for the environment, does it in an equally “good” way.
Velò – Dico turns the most sustainable transport, the bicycle ("Velò" in French, hence the pun) in to the most sustainable advertisement.
Veiò - Dico is an advertising service on two wheels, quiet, unobtrusive, environmentally friendly and efficient, which affects lately on the streets of Turin.

Michele Noce, president of the center of aggregation Cecchi Point, has kindly answered our questions.

How was the idea of Velò – Dico born?
«The idea was born inside the young team of the Association Muovi Equilibri with the intention of combining a way of communication and promotion of initiatives and activities to the same criteria of sustainable mobility.Indeed the service also aims to publicize and promote a wider dissemination and use of alternative zero impact transport instead of motor vehicles. In addition, it is not underestimate the importance of direct contact with people that this communication approach tends to establish and enhance; the direct contact with people is in line with our understanding of public space and of a city on a human scale.
Environmental, economic and social sustainability then. Based on these considerations, the service has seen the light together with other services, such as cycle deliveries and training activities such as courses of cyclomechanics and the popular cyclogarage. All these ideas have been collected under the name Cicloffice and actually initiated in the context of intercultural center of aggregation Cecchi Point where the association has found a new home».

What makes the difference between your communication strategy and the traditional advertisements?
«This type of communication strategy has the advantage of arriving in the most direct way to people by concentrating at the same time a double message: a different approach to advertising and 'use of alternative vehicles to carry out any activities of every day life, such as business or pleasure. Moreover, the membership and craftmade dimension supports the offer of services customer designed, meeting customer's specific needs and ideas, a way to approach very useful and stimulating to improve and develop an innovative service like ours. Our communication is then clearly perceived by the public as "sustainable" because, as a rule, the sustainable is what is advertised and promoted».

Envi.info considers this initiative sustainable and highly innovative. We are so happy that Turin will be informed on the street, at once, with news arriving on two wheels.

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“A piedi nudi nel verde”: an interesting book against the deficit of environmental policy

by Silvia Musso

Are you local administrators, educators or simply parents? Do you think the city where you live is not human-sized? Do you think your children need green spaces where playing and being free? In brief, do you feel a "nature deficit" and would you like to know how to change this reality toward more sustainable urban forms?

A piedi nudi nel verde. Giocare per imparare a vivere (“Barefoot in nature. Playing to learn to live” by Giunti Editore) is a book where you can find useful insights, interesting examples and an extensive bibliography and site links on the relationship between childhood play and nature.

The two authors, the philosopher of science Albertina Oliverio and developmental psychologist Anna Oliverio Ferraris, have been engaged years in the defence of urban environments to meet the needs of any citizen, especially children. We contacted them to figure out through their observations what the book specifically is.

Which is the aim of the book and its main target?
«These days lifestyle is not suitable for children growing needs. While activity is essential to children wellness, obesity among youths is dramatically increasing due to sedentariness. Children are exposed to several stimuli that accelerate their growth preventing them to spontaneously develop their mental attitude through games. There is a relationship, scientifically proven, between the lack of free playing in childhood and anxiety and depression in adolescence. If these days children play much less than a few decades ago, is because meeting spaces have slowly disappeared, roads have become very dangerous, parents are more concerned and anxious than their grandparents were and in consumer society children are considered just like small adults rather than kids. With this book, we speak to teachers, administrators and citizens. It is important to give children back those spaces and those times they need. Too many children today are overweight because they move little and obesity is increasing among adolescents. Too many children are not engaged in anything could give them pleasure and which contribute to the development of sociability and intelligence. Children build up their personality interacting with peers, taking initiatives and using imagination. Playing together is learning to make decisions, solve problems, exercise self-control, regulate emotions, respect the rules, find compromises, all in a cheerful and optimistic atmosphere».

In the book you refer to a kind of commercial communication that often degrades outdoor life, play and movement. Are there special forms of communication and media which may convey environmental sustainable messages concerning childhood and education?
«Media could send this kind of messages. If they do not, it is because they just follow business. Think of the incredible number of commercials broadcasted every day, even in children programs. It is good to know that in several European countries inserting commercial advertisements in children programs (from Norway to Greece ...) is not permitted because of the power of persuasion and manipulation that may have commercial messages. But advertising is not the only guilty. Many entertainment programs send messages morally harmful or full of anxiety trying to keep viewers "glued" to the screen. Gossip broadcasts are offensive to children: many, however, watch them with their parents».

Among the numerous stimuli and examples presented throughout chapters, in several occasions you refer to the importance of citizens involvement in cities administrative life. What do you mean by that?
«Children are citizens like anybody else, even if they do not vote. But they cannot defend their rights, so adults have to be strongly involved in their welfare, women in particular. Experience teaches us that when women have public administrations roles, children's civil rights are safeguarded. Northern European countries, where women hold political offices as an equal to men, we find the highest attention to children and adolescents as well as the largest number of initiatives to make cities more "green" and livable. Even in Italy we have some good cases, but there is still not a widespread awareness of these issues».

Envi strongly recommends reading this book we can call "militant": it is a text full of relevant messages for a sustainable present and future of our children, that we hope can be spread as much as possible.

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Cambio Climático 2011: Argentina gives hospitality to the thrid Internation Congress on climte changes and sustainbility

by Silvia Musso

Since 8th to 11th August will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the third international conference on climate change, organized by UNLP, the Unidad de Comunicación Institucional Facultad de Ciencias Económicas.

Among the experts who will participate as speakers there will also be Erik Balzaretti, coordinator of the Italian Master in Communication of Sustainability and member of the Scientific Committee of AICA presenting a paper with a certainly intriguing title, "El Calent global, entre el Apocalipsis y el marketing" ("Global warming, between apocalypse and marketing). Envi stuff reached and asked him some questions.

What do you expect from this conference and from the dialogue with other experts?
«Firstly I want to say that the call as an expert in this international conference is an evidence that my work and AICA activity in these years were not in vain but rather of a certain value. Then, you always hope in some new ideas or at least some new points of view that that let the research to advance or to find some partners to work on issues of our interest. My paper, dedicated to the relationship between the media and climate change, is part of a strand devoted to issues of communication and culture and education. Now it seems clear that global warming is real and we need to find "the words to say it" and to prepare a quantitative and qualitative turnaround into the use of energy resources».

Your speech focuses on the collective imagination in the Environmental Communication of climate change. Can you explain briefly what it is?
«At the heart of our society there is not the people but the media. They, through various forms of narration, have taken the task of building our opinions, our hopes, our denials. The social and economic system through the media constructs the identity of each of us and of us all together. A good rhetoric to push for change must keep in mind the collective imagination and act on it if it wants to achieve effective communication. This is valid for climate change, better to say global warming because also the words have a more or less impactful meaning, as with all environmental issues».

In the paper you are presenting , you talk about "Cassandra syndrome that characterizes the environmental information". What do you mean by that?
«How you know Cassandra had received as a gift from Apollo, the ability to predict, but after he had broken his promise the Greek god had revoked the ability to be believed. Information firstly, but also environmental communication in general, suffers from this syndrome: you carry data, and it is expected that the future of humankind will be difficult if you don not decide to change the development system, but the citizens and the institutions find it hard to believe and to take action despite signs are getting stronger».

What should the Environmental Communication linked to climate change do to avoid an ideological interpretation of the data?
«Get out of the impasse of rationality and logic that allows the interpretation of data and relates to the citizen as a clenched fist that forces you to believe and stand up for working with the rhetoric, poetics, and the paradigm of desirability that instead is perceived by citizens as an open hand that caresses and persuades. In this sense, to act on imaginary, even through the most catastrophic one, allows the movements of consciousness and introjection of the subject that does not always you can get on a scientific-rational level. Ours is a society of mass consumption used to be flattered by the rhetoric of goods, including cultural ones, through the language of marketing and advertising. We need to develop emotions, as the rationality is not working».

Environmental communication and climate change: the thems to reflect are definitely numerous. While we are waiting to receive the report of the Professor Balzaretti on his participation at the congress, the debate can be also opened on these pages.
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Let's play?

by Eleonora Anello

At the end, even the IPA (the Italian Institute that disciplines the advertising) decided that the chess game was rigged! Maybe the verdict was not sufficiently widespread, but the spot of the Italian Nuclear Forum, that we had talked about during its broadcast, it was deemed misleading.

The authority called to monitor the advertisements says: «The ad aims to the public in the style of a neutral communication and information, as if it were a social communication. Precisely because of this, the message is flawed for lack of transparency about its promotional, about the product it aims to promote (nuclear energy and its choice), about the identity of the advertiser and its communication part. Thanks to an apparent show of impartiality with respect to the interests involved, the message uses an extremely effective persuasive technique, which is however very unfair, putting themselves therefore contrary to Article 2 of the Code, as it carries statements and representations that may mislead the public in relation to the real identity of the advertiser, and then press the promotional purposes».

To remedy this, the Forum was added enough "We are in favour”, the final words that reveal the true intentions.

Rigged or not, we consider it a Pyrrhic victory. A win all in all useless. The control machine that monitors the communication has worked, but It has been emitted when the campaign of the Forum was no longer on the air and had the opportunity to show visible its effects. The corrected and amended version of the video, can be viewed only online. In short, the sentence seems a bit 'too small compared to the effect that the spot, disguised as a social campaign, has had on target.

For this Greenpeace, an association that has fought for the campaign for nuclear to be postponed, waiting for the sentence, has not been watching. It responded with another campaign, made up of a site and a video, though very clicks on the web, did not have the space and the planning of Nuclear Forum. Salvatore Barbera, head of the anti-nuclear campaign of Greenpeace Italy, aware of the imbalance, made his request: «Given the decision of the jury, asking to broadcast our commercials on television for a true balance in the discussion on the return of nuclear in Italy. We fear, however, that will apply the strategy of silence so as not to say that in a few months there will be a referendum on nuclear power also».

The approach of the referendum has sparked a lively and tough competition in communication between the different factions. This is the case, again, to hope to win the best?
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Small scratches on grass

by Annalisa Audino

Frontiers of the art are endless, as the forms in which an artist can express himself and communicate his own message and his own talent. Often however the art is also very discussed, especially in some forms and expressions, particularly strange, scandalous or unrespectful of the environment and of the society. Among these there is surely graffiti art: diffused social, cultural and artistic demonstration in the whole planet, is based on the expression of his creativeness through interventions on the fabric urban public and privacy. The phenomenon, remembering the mural painting (it has often approached to it), in reality it primarily foresees writings and not draws, usually the name of the artist or meaningful sentences that become messages. Just because performed on walls, trains or objects and public and private buildings, it often comes in partnership to actions of vandalism: the use of varnishes and sprays, are not certain to greet for the guardianship of the environment besides.

But we can't admit that sometimes graffiti are real works of art.

Strucked by numerous polemics and intented to find a new expressive form, in the last times some artists to the world of the street art and endowed with a particular sensibility toward the thematic environmental have conceived a new way to make graffiti that is to say the Echo-graffiti or, as someone call it, the Organic Art. The artists try to focus the attention on the environment, both as it regards the messages of the works themselves, that as it regards the composition.

Among the streets more known and original artists there are Ann Garforth and Eleanor Stevens, called the duo El & Abe. About two years ago the two artists started to make Mossenger (fusion of moss and messenger), that is graffiti made of musk that, if positioned in correct levels of damp and light, they live attached to the walls for years. The procedure is simple: they are picked up by Ann grass and musk common that are able to grow on the bricks and they are glued on the wall, in the form of the words of Eleanor, with a natural mixture of yogurt and sugar.
An example of their collaboration are SporeBorne and Watch Your Skin Peel, so described by the artists: «Spores borne air represents the wind of change and movement, seeds that germinate, musk's spores in the air, damp, potential. Watch your skin peel can be seen how a metaphor of the conscious change, of the human body in a state of constant flow, the to throw aside the dead subject and the regeneration».

Ann Garforth is active also in the guerrilla gardening, another interesting example of artistic connection between art and nature.

Another meaningful artist is Edina Tokodi, a young street-artist ecologist that has decided to recover the relationship between the man and the nature distributing on the walls of her city, Williamsburg (Brooklyn), figures of animals cut out in the musk. The Tokodi has studied graphic arts and design to the Hungarian academy of Belle Arti and has completed the studies to Milan with a course of urban design. What pushes her in this form of art is the desire to study the way according to which the people welcome his small animals of musk. Its objective is to operate in direction of a harmonic relationship with the environment in which we live and that we often forget there to protect.
Edina describes her job in the blog Environmental Graffiti, where you can also find precious suggestions on as to create your own ecological graffiti.
«I believe that our distance from the nature both by now a cliche - she explains - The inhabitants of the city don't often have relationships with the animals or the green. How public artist I hear the duty to attract the attention on the lacks in our daily life. How cultivator of echo-urban sensibility, returns usually in the places to visit mine "cried" or "musk", at times to mend more generally them some but nothing because they potentially receive enough water from the air, from the condensation and from the rain. Also the reaction of whom lives the roads it is very important: I am curious of as the people receive them, if they want only to leave them alone, if they want to take care of him of them or to dismantle them. This is what makes my job similar to the graffiti, although I am looking for a social meaning more depth and of a dialogue with the memoirs of animals and gardens of my past in a small city of the Center Europe. I believe that if everybody had one garden of theirs to cultivate we would have a more balanced reaction with our territories. Of certain, a garden can be a lot of things».

The graffiti and the advertising ecological communication in reality have been tightening friendship since more or less two year and they have become must of the moment real. An example is the advertising country realized by the Green Graffiti with graffiti realized to water on the roads, perfectly washable. The company affirms to absolutely care the environmental sustainability and to give to organizations of beneficence 90 euro for every realized graffiti and besides, for every liter of water used, invests in a project of harvest that furnishes a liter of drinkable water to the inhabitants of an arid zone of Brazil. To today have stuck to the new advertising country some public institutions as the museum of Rotterdam, but also Mtv, Elle, Smart. More...

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Skyscrapers in waiting list

by Eleonora Anello

Can the skyscrapers been regarded as a symbol of modernity today? In a society that has discovered the right quantities, that adopts sober lifestyle in the respecting of the environment, tall buildings over 170 meters can represent it? These are the questions raised by the Committee of Turin “Non Grattiamo il cielo” (Not scratch the sky), created to fill the lack of a wide-ranging and constructive discussion with citizens affected by major planning changes. The decisions imposed from above, concern the construction of two skyscrapers, one of the Intesa San Paolo bank and the other of the Piedmont Region, intended to change the skyline of the historic Savoy city, overwhelmingly silhouetted on those mountains that in 2006 hosted the Olympic Games.

Do the citizens of Turin need a new symbol to identify with? Truly will enjoy the city new found fame? With all the brownfield sites in outlying areas, why building in downtown? How much energy does a skyscraper consume? Are these investments necessary for the city? These are the concerns communicated on the site by protesters that aspiring to involve citizens in the fight against the building of “unsustainable environmental emblems” -citing Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian Meteorological Society and AICA (International Association Environmental Communication) Scientific Committee member - relying mainly highly engaging activities through the web, without forgetting the presence on the territory that seeks to involve residents of affected areas to urban changes. One of the latest networking initiatives involved sending photographs depicting the landscape of Turin as it appears today from their window.

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 at the Torre di Abele Library of Turin, the Committee turned to the government through the dissemination of an appeal initiated primarily by Italia Nostra (National association for the preservation of historic, artistic and natural heritage) asking to hear the voices of citizens and their economic, urban, landscape concerns. The press release starts from the consideration that the urban landscape, integrated into its natural surroundings and mountains, is a fundamental element of the collective heritage of Turin and it is necessary to support it as a cultural and social need, precise identification element for residents. The two towers are a strong element of striking discrepancy in terms of environmental sustainability in recent times the city tries to pursue. The Committed proposed not only a pause for reflection in order to rethink the project, but a lower impact alternatives aimed to reduce construction costs, management and consumption, and the opportunity was good also to boost petition on Firmiamo.it and on Facebook.

”Siamo vicini ai tuoi sogni” (We are close to your dreams), says the latest Intesa San Paolo commercial campaign, but if the shadow of the skyscraper will befall on its hometown will alienate some of the dreams of those who believe that their city needs care and investment behind the times, choices and sustainable technologies, renewable energy. Publishing the work “Lucia Forte sfida Renzo Piano” (from the Italian romance “I Promessi Sposi”) by Marco Pece alias udronotto, that represents the skyscraper under construction in Corso Vittorio Emanuele II built with LEGO bricks, we hope that the simplicity, the immediacy and the humorism of its message can continue to have a purely informational function that would bring other people to debate on these important changes. More...

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Reduce by a "bit"

by Alessio Sciurpa

An important message of civic responsibility on the reduction of electronic waste, also this is the "European Week for Waste Reduction". Two young people distinct realities from the Cosenza Province (South of Italy) involved: Altomonte, a center of 5,000 inhabitants, the pearl of tourism in Calabria Region and cradle of art of the '300, which turns into a movie set. Where around 200 young people have been involved on transform its historic center on an "eco-electronic place" of twenty-first century, through the creation of a television spot on the reduction of electronic waste;

and Rende, dynamic university center, where 30,000 students on November 28, will transfer to their “little clones”, elementary and middle school students, best practices for reuse of hi-tech waste.

It is Laplacian, the company of innovative design based in Rende, to have coordinated the implementation of this actions, we speak with Tommaso Caporale, CEO of Laplacian.

Taking a cue from your project on electronic materials, as we can combine environmental activities with measures of social value?
«Starting the "Re-Waste" project, a network of mobile laboratories for collecting the reuse of discarded devices, as well as avoid a "pandemic" of waste, the purchase of more new advanced electronic obelisks (I refer to the electronic components that often performs exaggerated, compared to those effective used) and through the dissemination of knowledge of this potential by young professionals from the field (engineers and technicians), has triggered a dual mechanism of social development: discarded devices , "re-sprinkled" or with open source software, will be given for free to needy and poor families, by transferring to them an important know-how, innovating our relationship with nature, as well as technology makes it through our habits».

How to communicate the importance of collecting WEEE and their subsequent reuse and which target have you privileged?
«The project started with the opening of the set for the spot on Saturday, November 21, focuses on awareness of the reuse of waste from computer hardware; the pretext of the spot has the feedback from young people's attention to the issue of WEEE disposing, still little known among the younger generation which, paradoxically, are the main users. As technology push forward, as the knowledge of environmental good practices recoils. Laplacian has wanted to reverse this trend».
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9/11 vs. Tsunami

by Alessio Sciurpa

The protests raised against the WWF campaign that has covered Manhattan in the last few days (there is also a video version), sparked the ire of many New Yorkers who were preparing to commemorate 9/11, opens an interesting question:

It is lawful manipulate an event like this?

I can still make two comments:

- The first is: equate the two events, 9 / 11 and the tsunami of 2004, and the difference in their victims, allow also to equate the brutality of the earth (as stated in the campaign’s payoff) with the brutality of man. 9/11 is a deliberate act, the tsunami is a fact of natural origin. Albeit with the same brutality, the nature of itself does not kill intentionally, though the impact human activities on the natural cycles is well established.
- The second is that on the wave of the campaign, several media have also reported the new warning on climate change launched by the WWF at the Geneva Conference: approximately one quarter of world population (1,687,704,845 people) is threatened by flooding (tsunami, etc ) due to the melting of Arctic glaciers. Only the 2004 tsunami did 28mila victims.

The ratio between the data is obvious. But without this campaign, this new alarm would go unnoticed? Or the outrage at a campaign strongly emotional, risk rather damaging the image of who proposes it and the message you want to convey?
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Ecoadv: communicate on the water ... zero impact?

by Eleonora Anello

For companies that want to impress consumers; and for those always looking for unique and innovative spaces; for those in search of new forms of communication, the artist and performer Carlo Maria Maggia launches Ecoadv, a mix of environmental art and advertising "natural”.

Project-patent promises to revolutionize the world of communication.

On the one hand, Maggia organizes new and unprecedented advertising space capable of attracting the attention of even the most distracted and detached individual advertising, going to the conquest of expanses of water like oceans, rivers, lakes but also in aquatic environments most urban like harbours, fountains ... or even glasses of water! Secondly its communication claims to be fully eco-compatible.

Working corrugated sheets obtained from extrusion of corn starch and fully biodegradable in water, Maggia has indeed thought of making sculptures, installations and advertising, with a pre-determined length of time, until their complete deterioration: the impact "of end of season" will be zero, since the operations are unnecessary disposal.

The materials used to create advertising, in addition to starch from corn, can be manifold: for example those of organic nature which decompose within a few days, low cost, as ice or jelly.

Envi.info speaks directly with the creator of Ecoadv, the artist Carlo Maria Maggia.

With Ecoadv there’s an attempt to transform its environmental performance art into a tool of communication for commercial purposes, working on a frontier which today is still de-branded: water. There want to talk?
The project starts from an artistic utopia that leads to a social purpose, that is what I’m looking for. I try to approach art in order to improve the relationship between man and nature. The use of advertising is not the peculiarity of Ecoadv.

The strengths are definitely spectacular, the surprise effect and the possibility of endless forms. But nature will appreciate? It’s really a way of communicating "ecological"? Or there are possibilities that this could undermine the biological balance of the environment, flora and fauna, thus giving rise to a boomerang effect for the same advertising message?
Absolutely not. It depends on the amount and size of the message. The products used are 100% water soluble. You can also use the ice! Such campaigns are fully covered in the natural biological cycle, it would be like throwing bread into water! Just knowing how to dose the quantity.

Do you believe that there are real possibilities of development for this advertising technique, or, once the effect surprise will be vanished, you will understand that everything was in turn a great performance?
It can’t be anticipated previously that the project will be successful. But I can tell you with certainty that the world is heading towards the environment and sustainability, and that if this new form of advertising spreads certainly will not be adopted by the multinationals. The only objection that can be advanced is that the logo, after a predetermined period, dissolves in water and at the level of communication can be interpreted in a negative way. For the moment the project has aroused much interest in being a forerunner of a series of initiatives that will explode in the future. More...

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Two green campaigns won at Cannes Lions 2009

by Alessio Sciurpa

At the 56th edition of the International Advertising Festival in Cannes two green campaigns have been awarded the Cyber Lions in Interactive Campaigns and Other Interactive Digital Media categories.

In the first category one of the most original campaign of the year, Ther best job in the World, which consisted of a competition to win the job of a beautiful island caretaker on the Great Barrier Reef. Original and provocative campaign of the Australian tourism office: 70 thousand euros in six months, to settle on the island of Hamilton, in a house among the palm trees and feed the turtles, observed cetaceans that cross off, check mail and keep a blog with relevant photos, to be updated only once a week. A real torture!

In the second category the prize was awarded to the project “Eco:Drive” in which Fiat has been able to extend the concept of environmental responsibility even to the way you drive your car. Through a beta release software (downloaded from www.fiat.com/ecodrive ) and open to improvements resulting from user feedback, building interaction and community around the campaign. The software Eco: Drive collects all necessary information relating to the vehicle efficiency through the USB port of the system Blue & Me on a pendrive. Once inserted into a computer, the system presents detailed environmental performance of cars, including each trip CO2 emission level, analyzing the driving style and will give advice on how to change it encouraging to improve its environmental impact. If you must use your car, try to do it efficiently!

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Waste in Naples: can “Pubblicità Progresso” be self-celebration?

by Redazione

A woman submerged by rubbish, representing the city of Naples, is cleared by some people, who symbolize the Italian government: this is the Tv ad “Napoli. Bella ieri, bella oggi, bella domani” (“Neaples. Beautiful yesterday, beautiful today, beautiful tomorrow”), sponsored by the Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri and Pubblicità Progresso, on air on main Italian televisions until April 11th.

As usual in Pubblicità Progresso’s adverts, the story is very simple, since it must reach a wide audience. The tone alternates different phases: there is a beginning dysphoria in black and white, then colours underline the renaissance of the city. Acting wants to emphasize the style of some actresses symbol of Naples: it is clear the reference to Sofia Loren, who recited in "Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow," move to which the claim is referred.

Whatever the artistic staging, this advert has roused much controversy about the content and messages it conveys. According to its detractors, in fact, it does not educate Neapolitans to separate waste collection, omits the major damages caused to the environment and the citizens’ health, celebrates the external beauty as a value and, finally, it offends the women and the city itself.

“Pubblicità Progresso” defends itself through its president Alberto Contri: «We see with regret that there isn’t any word on the excellent work we made, nor about the quality of an advert that distances considerably from usual communication, a little rhetoric, and that -invites citizens and visitors to cooperate».
This analysis does not examine the problem of how this ad portrays the woman, that is scorned, according to Valeria Valente, municipal concullor to equal opportunities of the City of Naples. For her, in fact, this kind of advertising affects the dignity of women and has to be considered «an insult to women, as well as a 'revival' of Naples as a 'city of the waste». The Italian Women's Union (Udi) has also issued an alert to the IAP (Institute of Advertising Practice) as the spot would violate certain articles of the Code of Conduct: defames women and Naples by comparing to waste; shows inappropriate behaviours as an answer to the seriousness of the environmental situation, and induces to lower the attention on the territorial robbery, still taking place near the town.

And the questions raised by the advert are yet more numerous. What is the message sent by Pubblicità Progresso (which by its mission addresses issues of public interest), besides that “the problem has been solved”? Is the advert really effective in terms of positive actions that it could encourage: separate waste collection, greater attention to environment and land, etc? Are there most "educational" and less "celebrative" ways to deal with this subject, maybe working with the virtuous realities working in this area?

Meanwhile the ad is whooping up on You Tube ... even if the surfers prefer the funny version of "You blob", which is leading the click ranking.
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Coen Brothers directed the new advert of the “Reality” campaign

by Alessio Sciurpa


“Clean Coal Clean - Air Freshener”, now running on broadcast and online US media, is the first in a series of ads directed for the Reality campaign by Academy-Award winning filmmakers Coen Brothers, directors of movies like "Arizona Junior", "Fargo", "The Big Lebowsky", "No country for old man" and "Burn After Reading".

The advert begins with a woman spraying her home with a scented air freshener. A typical product pitchman enters the living room and asks: “Is regular clean, clean enough for your family? Not when you can have Clean Coal Clean!” The rest can be found out by yourselves…

The “Reality” Campaign is sponsored by the “Reality Coalition”, a joint project of the Alliance for Climate Protection, League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defence Council, National Wildlife Federation and Sierra Club.
Launched last December with a multi-million dollar national advertising campaign, the Reality Coalition has formed to tell a simple truth: in reality there is no such thing as “clean” coal.
So, as the US enter a critical step of the debate about clean energy, the Reality Coalition is continuing its efforts to debunk the myth of “clean coal”, also by using tv and web ads.

The campaign aims to tell the truth about coal with a simple claim: “A Little Bird Told Me: it isn't Clean!”

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