Thursday, April 26, 2007

"What's the difference?" "The letter 'u.'"

MuchMusic has recently aired PSAs for a new campaign aimed at reducing emissions in Canada. The spots are filmed in a hand-held, guerrilla fashion and feature two or three young people "covertly" smacking "Flick Off" bumper stickers onto idling cars and unattended laptops.

Now, a car is one thing; people can easily access each other's cars while they're on the road. But the laptop bit takes place inside a home. How can I be compelled to Flick Off when the seams of your campaign are so glaring? I don't know about you, but I need my commercials free of improbable scenarios before I can begin to consider the merits of the ad.

This reminds me of the equally frustrating Stop Smoking campaign, stupid.ca, which is sponsored by the Government of Ontario. That campaign will have us believe that a group of kids with government cash didn't have the sway to stick up a few signs in the mall without fear of being kicked out. It also tries to convince me that smoking is not cool, so this one's got all sorts of lies happening.

Both campaigns use various techniques like handheld cameras and frantic acting to give the spots an air of danger and counter-cultural, anti-establishment cred. The Flick Off campaign goes a step further by substituting the word "flick" for the oh-so-versatile and caustic "fuck." Their website takes bad puns to a Michael Scott level with sections titled "Are We Flicked?" and "Go Flick Yourself."

Key Gordon, the advertising agency behind the campaign, offers this explanation for their techniques: "It's kind of provocative, but after reading George Monbiot's book Heat and seeing An Inconvenient Truth, well, the situation kind of calls for provocative, don't you think?"

Sure, I think climate change is provocative, but not the word "flick."

Young people should not be pandered to the way these campaigns do. Actually, let's make that: no people should be pandered to by public service announcements. Public service! Let the issue speak for itself.

Rather than intrigued and motivated by the message of the Flick Off campaign, I'm insulted by those motherfuckers.

It's called swearing, Key Gordon. And it's fun.

No comments: