Wow… this afternoon I just saw a mini tornado roll through my neighborhood in Malibu! At first there was a nice light rain and then an instant change to the largest downpour I have ever seen. Then the storm cloud reached down and touched land, forming a spinning tunnel of darkness that managed to lift a lawnchair (or something looking like it) 150 feet into the air! The funnel weakened as it made its way up the hill and finally softened to a white twisting puff of smoke that wanted to start up again.   The whole process lasted for just a few minutes and was truly crazy. I guess you don’t need to be in Kansas to experience that any more!

Last week Becca sent around a link around the office to the Story of Stuff (www.storyofstuff.com), a compelling 20 minute piece written by Annie Leonard that tears down our cycles of consumption. The simple animation style, clear storyline and Annie’s gentle delivery puts the Story of Stuff message in the same league as Sara McLachlan’s World on Fire and Al Gore’s masterpiece, edited by our friends at Cut+Run. Although her simple description of our consumption problems been criticized on the web for not providing equally simple answers, I believe that Annie is proving that the power of phrasing an issue well combined with the power of the internet can spread awareness better than ever before.

Annie places advertising close to the center of the dysfunctional cycle, focusing on the basic message of “You suck, so buy something new to make you better (temporarily)!” There is an interesting question here, which is how can Advertising make an impact for good? Over the next few weeks, we’ll have some ideas to share on this topic

Stay warm and keep away from tornados,

Bill

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at 4:45 pm and is filed under Green. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.