Al Gore Goes to Madison Avenue
If you missed the 60 Minutes interview with Al Gore last Sunday you should definitely check it out.
Gore was in full swing as crusader and activist, working to mobilize forces in the fight against global warming and environmental degradation. His latest weapon in the fight is Madison Avenue in the form of a $300 million ad campaign. This is a fascinating development in the ever-evolving “epic drama” around global warming currently being played out on the world stage among businesses, governments, NGOs, and citizens.
Gore’s plan to take the story directly to the people and to employ public will as a strategic tool is telling. It tells us that Gore and his team have decided that their resources (a lot of resources) are best spent “pushing the people to push” rather than doing the pushing themselves behind-the-scenes. Through their advertising campaign the Gore people seek to create a groundswell of public support – or better yet a public outcry – for action on global warming. By using mass media such as TV and the Internet to inspire the people to push their institutions (namely businesses and governments) rather than pushing on these institutions themselves the Gore team is seeking leverage in their call for faster, more meaningful action on global warming. It is an important and very sensible change in strategy in my opinion.
In Gore’s own words:
“The simple algorithm is this: It’s important to change the light bulbs, but it’s much more important to change the laws,” he said. “The options available to civilization worldwide to avert this terribly destructive pattern are beginning to slip away from us. The path for recovery runs right through Washington, D.C.”
No one knows better than Gore that the way to affect change in Washington, DC is through applying mass amounts of public pressure on lawmakers. If Gore’s ad campaign works, lawmakers will be overwhelmed by voter calls, emails and letters demanding new legislation on carbon emissions and energy usage – and we’ll finally get meaningful legislation. It is also no surprise that this ad campaign launches seven months before our general election as it is during this timeframe that the American public is most engaged in the political process, paying closest attention, and most likely to take action on an individual basis.
It will be fascinating to watch this “take it to the streets” strategy unfold in the months and years to come — here’s hoping it works.
