What do ad agencies stand for?

Posted by Rob Walker on February 20, 2008
Posted Under: Advertising,Ethics

Adrants has this blip about a project called Unscrew America. It’s a campaign to get people to use compact fluorescent light bulbs. There’s a site, and some ads.

I’m kind of ambivalent about the execution — well, to be blunt, I don’t really care for it. But never mind that. What I’m interested in is that as far as I can tell this is underwritten entirely by GSD&M, not for any client or pro bono client or cause/organization or nonprofit. Just their own initiative, their own time and money.

Seems like most of the interesting or successful “good” work I see from agencies is always on behalf of some other entity — whether it’s Arnold Worldwide and Crispin Porter’s famous work, or the TheTruth or the Droga5 Tap Project for Unicef.

Nothing wrong with doing compelling work on behalf of some else’s idea or cause. But are there many other examples of an agency doing something simply to promote an idea that the agency itself believes in?

Maybe there are. You tell me.

Further diversion may be found at MKTG Tumblr, and the Consumed Facebook page.

Reader Comments

Hi Rob –

Leo Burnett, with WWF and Fairfax Media did Earth Hour in Sydney last year, and are bringing it to other cities 3.29.08. Burnett co-generated the idea from the start. It’s not quite self-contained, but it is more than pro-bono and came from the belief and passion at LB Sydney. [PS – I recently joined Burnett but I don’t work on Earth Hour]

From earthhour.org:

Created to take a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced, Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming.

On 31 March 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour. This massive collective effort reduced Sydney’s energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour, which is the equivalent effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for one hour.

With Sydney icons like the Harbour Bridge and Opera House turning their lights off, and unique events such as weddings by candlelight, the world took notice. Inspired by the collective effort of millions of Sydneysiders, many major global cities are joining Earth Hour in 2008, turning a symbolic event into a global movement.

This simple act has captured the hearts and minds of people all over the world. As a result, at 8pm March 29, 2008 millions of people in some of the world’s major capital cities, including Copenhagen, Toronto, Chicago, Melbourne, Brisbane and Tel Aviv will unite and switch off for Earth Hour.

From the FAQs: Who’s behind Earth Hour?

Earth Hour started as a joint initiative between WWF-Australia, Fairfax Media and Leo Burnett for the city of Sydney. The intent is for the event to be adopted by other residents, communities, businesses and governments around the world so they too can help demonstrate that individual action on a mass scale can help change our planet for the better.

Isn’t this just a fundraising event for WWF?

No. WWF-Australia, Fairfax Media and Leo Burnett launched Earth Hour with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Sydney by 5% in 2007.

Written By A Reid on February 21st, 2008 @ 11:46 am

DiMassimo Goldstein created Tappening, a project that promotes tap water over bottled.