Global Warming: This Time With Explosions and Car Chases!
Ever go and see a movie and while you're walking out, sometimes as much as fifty dollars poorer, you think to yourself, "wow, that really sucked. It looked so much better in the trailer."
The trailer had explosions, a car chase, a bad guy who had some witty evil line , a good guy with the rah-rah line, the hot chick in her underwear, robots, a cute dog, the funny parents, a grouchy old guy who seems to know everything, and time travel! How could this go wrong?
But it does.
People get paid a lot of money to make sure trailers look awesome. They pick all the parts and use all the lines that they know will grab the viewer's attention. Then they test them out and tweak them to make sure they will be 100% effective. All designed to make a good movie sell itself and a crap movie look awesome.
And that is exactly what I thought of when I read that ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental marketing and messaging firm in Washington, had conducted research on the best was to present global warming to a country that is becoming increasing skeptical of its validity and the intentions of those promoting it.
Seems the term "global warming" is a turnoff all by itself.
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Environmental issues consistently rate near the bottom of public worry, according to many public opinion polls. A Pew Research Center poll released in January found global warming last among 20 voter concerns; it trailed issues like addressing moral decline and decreasing the influence of lobbyists. "We know why it's lowest," said Mr. Perkowitz, a marketer of outdoor clothing and home furnishings before he started ecoAmerica, whose activities are financed by corporations, foundations and individuals. "When someone thinks of global warming, they think of a politicized, polarized argument. When you say 'global warming,' a certain group of Americans think that's a code word for progressive liberals, gay marriage and other such issues." The answer, Mr. Perkowitz said in his presentation at the briefing, is to reframe the issue using different language. "Energy efficiency" makes people think of shivering in the dark. Instead, it is more effective to speak of "saving money for a more prosperous future." In fact, the group's surveys and focus groups found, it is time to drop the term "the environment" and talk about "the air we breathe, the water our children drink." "Another key finding: remember to speak in TALKING POINTS aspirational language about shared American ideals, like freedom, prosperity, independence and self-sufficiency while avoiding jargon and details about policy, science, economics or technology," said the e-mail account of the group's study. |
Obviously this is nothing new. Opinion polls and focus groups are a part of life now. But when a group has to change its whole presentation just to get people to listen, you might want to be weary of that turkey you’re about to pay admission for.
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