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30 Jul 2008

A more natural way to fly...

Posted by: David Willans

A more natural way to fly...

Just as I was thinking 'I haven't posted on the blog for ages' an absolute beauty of a muse fell into my lap. The headline that caught my eye? -

'Publicis campaign lauds green credentials of Airbus'

If you've read our Greenwash Guide you will have a very good idea what's going wrong here, but just to sum it up -

1. Best in class - just because it's the most environmentally friendly plane (I don't know this by the way, might not be true), doesn't mean the Airbus is environmentally friendly - biodegradable ammunition anyone?!

2. Suggestive imagery - Check out the article, but is representing a plane as a leaf, being carried by ants really a realistic representation? Yes, ants can carry 10 - 20 times their body weight, but this is a 560 ton, at full capacity, lump of metal. Get your pen and paper at the ready to write to the ASA if you see one of these ads out there.

3.  Fluffy language - 'A more natural way to fly'  is it, really? Surrounded by 100's of tons of metal and plastic and powered by fossil fuel? Surely jumping off a cliff with a hang glider is 'more natural'

Only a small bit of the blame should rest on the creative team here, from the article its clear the brief was flawed, and I quote -

"Brief Reinforce Airbus' leadership on environment matters (in its market)"

So the client has to take a chunk of responsibility. But, what's really interesting is the fact that Publicis own Saatchi & Saatchi S -

"a revolutionary market offering designed to activate corporate and consumer action on a mass scale to address environmental and economic sustainability."

Now Publicis is huge, so the left hand might not have been talking to the right, but we can draw oneof two conclusions - 

1. If the sustainability guys and gals worked on this project, they clearly don't know their onions

2. If they didn't, there is a massive internal comms job to do at Publicis 

Comments (3)
  1. Ali said on 30 Jul 2008 09:52:32

    Wow, well spotted Dave - what a gem of an example - I remember overhearing discussions in the design room when creative ideas were being banded about for the ultimate, imaginary, greenwash ads to go into the greenwash guide - one would have been going out on a limb to have suggested a plane as a leaf in harmony with the natural world - you really couldn't make it up!
  2. ed said on 30 Jul 2008 15:31:19

    Truth is indeed stranger than fiction...this is a gold-dust example of daft, dangerous and highly dodgy comms Dave - nicely picked up!
  3. doug said on 30 Jul 2008 16:11:04

    Brilliant. This should go on the news page. We should shout GREENWASH when we see it.

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