Activists rap global warmers

A great way to gain attention is to stage a guerrilla event, and have a great pitch. But yellow crime scene tape never fails to get attention, as in this case of activists who “took over” the Washington DC office of Environmental Defense.

They taped off the entrance with yellow tape that read “global warming crime scene” for added effect. The tape has been used before, against BofA and ExxonMobil. The latter’s headquarters were declared a ‘crime scene’ by protesters who also used a truck. More commonly, activits have appropriated advertising tactics such as billboards and posters. This one by an animal rights group took that even further.

Oh, my!

Global warming, visualised, dramatized

Offsetters, a Vancouver organization used an interesting guerrilla marketing tactic to make people rethink what global warming will include.

Including: a live ‘lifeguard on duty’ and lifejackets under benches on the street.

Guerrilla marketing doesn’t only depend on controversy and surprise to be effective.

Jay Conrad Levinson (who wrote the books on Guerrilla Marketing) talks of commitment and patience, among other factors. Offsetters does have a few tools to help people calculate their carbon footprint, but how many organizations will add those tools to the mix? Even the ‘Climate Friendly’ link on its site with the option to book a climate friendly flight via Air France and WestJet, has a dubious explanation of why it makes the flight so good for the planet:

“…when the customer books their flight, the contribution made to Offsetters from participating airlines makes their flight “climate friendly”.

Meaning just contributing to Offsetters makes it a good thing in and of itself?  For all the drama created by the life saving metaphor, this is pretty lame. Levinson might be shocked!