Supposedly, Americans love the underdog. Maybe it’s true for sports teams and movie heroes, but it doesn’t appear to be the case for certain well-meaning underdog causes — specifically, environmentalism and animal rights.
Despite the fact that activists are well-intentioned, poorly compensated (if they are compensated at all), and are battling self-interested opponents with exponentially greater resources, certain radio and cable-news loudmouths have made it fashionable to ridicule their efforts.
And so now we have a pair of commercials — Kia’s “Save the Greenbacks” campaign — that effectively belittle these activists through parody. (It adds insult to injury that the spots are from a car-maker.)
As one blogger describes the ads:
The theme is, in my opinion, mocking the efforts of environmental groups trying to prevent the exploitation of wildlife and reserves … People in the ad are running around, scooping up “Greenbacks” (dollar bills) to “save” them. One ad takes place in a frozen landscape (Alaska?) and another at the beach (whales?).
I logged onto kia.com and used their “Feedback” option (yesterday) to let them know how tasteless these ads are to me. Today I received a call from Kia Motors and was given an opportunity to lodge my complaint in more detail. I recommend similar action to others…
So do we. You can view the ads for yourself here.
And by the way:
Throughout U.S. history, many activist groups were trashed mercilessly in their day — only to emerge as heroes to later generations. Abolitionists come to mind; they were ridiculed and hated. Even Lincoln, their greatest ally among presidents, distanced himself from them until emancipation became inevitable.
Just as politicians distance themselves from environmentalists and animal rights activists today.
Technorati tags: Advertising, PR, Environmentalism, Marketing
Tags: dallas marketing, dallas marketing agencies, dallas marketing firms
It’s easy to root for the underdog when no one asks you to change your behavior. Both movements you mentioned make people uncomfortable because they rock the status quo, and demand that we take responsibility for our actions and the effects they have on others. Not a simple or comfortable thing to do. Thanks for writing about this.
That’s a really good point.
It’s occurred to me that in the antebellum U.S., most people (North and South) didn’t want to know about the messy details of slavery. Even plantation owners shielded themselves from it, leaving it to overseers to do the dirty work. People just wanted their cotton shirts and the other benefits of forced labor, and didn’t want to think about where it came from.
Today, we want our gasoline, we want our perfume that’s been tested on animals, we want to have sex and abort the consequences, we want to eat meat but not see what happens in the slaughterhouse, and on and on.
We live in a world where if we don’t want to see all the unpleasant ingredients that go into the soup of our lives, we don’t have to. And we choose not to. It’s a big cultural secret, the emperor’s new clothes. And the media, more often than not, is the royal tailor.
Harrumph! It’s inconscionable unconsciousness, I tell you!
It’s also funny. Don Quixote was “well intentioned” too. And funny.
Let’s hope that the politicians and pundits who marginalize environmentalists do not turn the preservation of the planet into a quixotic cause.
Oh come on. It’s funny. Laugh.
You can’t save the world without knowing how to be happy. Yes, we are in a sorry state, but it only makes it a little bit sorrier if you can’t take a joke.
I know, I know — I usually have a good sense of humor about things. But I can’t help it; these ads bother me every time I see them.
im so upset with these ads…kia has to do something in better taste or im going to sell my car (kia)_ive already put duct tape over the name of it to avoid conflicts with my activist colleagues. so ashamed…so ashamed