Eco turn ons and turn offs

I saw this some time ago on AdPunch:

When these photographs are seen after turning the light off it gives altogether a new picture. The campaign has used a chemical that glows in the dark.

It was certainly a remarkable idea to bring this message across people in an attractive and interesting way to compel people to think in this direction. The presentation of the campaign is too very interesting and simple. The text of the campaign reads, ‘turn off the lights and reverse global warming’. The campaign was developed by The University of Texas.

What struck me about this is that the basic message is such a throwback. This is what I remember, as a kid, being the sort of enviro message in the 1970s: Poor old Jimmy Carter telling us not to be so wasteful. Even after the oil shocks, nobody wanted to hear that, and the people tossed out scolding Jimmy in favor of amiable Ronald Reagan. Green kind of faded for a decade or two.

Now the enviro thing is back, but it’s not about turning lights off and curbing waste — it’s about buying as many eco-chic products as your credit limit allows. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating, but really: Is “turn out the lights” a message that’s going to be hyped on the cool-product blogs, where green friendly is regularly touted as the hottest trend? It’s just not something Oprah can give to her studio audience, or that Vanity Fair can photoshop onto its cover.

Not using energy needlessly is arguably another form of unconsumption, and raises the same question I’ve asked before: Can it ever feel as good, give the kind of pleasure, as consumption (eco or otherwise)?

This campaign seemed like an attempt to give uncomspution some kind of emotional currency, so I poked around for more information. But I never did find any, so it’s not clear to me if this was just a class project if an actual campaign that involves poster-ing, or something else.