{"id":728,"date":"2015-02-10T17:13:10","date_gmt":"2015-02-10T21:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/?p=728"},"modified":"2015-02-10T17:13:10","modified_gmt":"2015-02-10T21:13:10","slug":"fear-based-marketing-has-no-place-in-the-mainstream-climate-change-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/2015\/02\/10\/fear-based-marketing-has-no-place-in-the-mainstream-climate-change-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Fear-Based Marketing Has No Place in the Mainstream Climate Change Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

originally published by Ian Edwards<\/a> BardMBA<\/a> ’15\u00a0on TriplePundit<\/a><\/p>\n

The underwhelming launch in August of\u00a0Milton Glaser<\/a>\u2019s new graphic campaign \u2014 \u201cIt\u2019s not warming. It\u2019s dying<\/a>\u201d \u2014<\/p>\n

\"When<\/a>
When it comes to climate change, voting, marching and innovating are \u201cachievable, empowering, scalable and marketable,\u201d argues Ian Edwards \u2014 and are far more successful than fear tactics.shows in dreary shades of green the many ongoing branding and marketing challenges of the climate change movement.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The prolific graphic design genius behind the happy and ubiquitous \u201cI \u2665 NY\u201d slogan (that single-handedly rebranded a struggling city in 1977) can\u2019t even get it right.<\/p>\n

His design of a green disk shrouded in a deathly black fog is dull, and the tagline\u00a0is just plain wrong. The planet is warming according to the many scientific minds at the United Nations\u2019\u00a0International Panel on Climate Change<\/a>, as just one source blaming humans for making climate change worse. Additionally, the people\u00a0living here are indeed threatened, but this big orbiting rock will outlive us all.<\/p>\n

With an issue as\u00a0polarizing as\u00a0climate change<\/a>, accuracy is important.<\/p>\n

The \u2018sustainability\u2019 conversation \u2013 of which the climate change discourse is a critical\u00a0subset \u2014 needs recalibration, traction and a spark that will ignite it in the mainstream beyond the lukewarm response to the crisis to date. How much more evidence do we need that the language of fear, which Glaser uses, fails to engage and inspire action?<\/span>
\nThe term \u2018sustainability\u2019 was adopted to make \u201csave the world\u201d earnestness palatable for stodgy boardroom meetings \u2014 and to let businesses seem like they are part of the environmental solution. At its core, \u2018sustainability\u2019 is about surviving, rather than thriving. No wonder it doesn\u2019t change behavior.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s often\u00a0not even genuine: As\u00a0the Economist<\/a>\u00a0recently made vivid, so-called \u2018sustainability\u2019 programs in most business are misnamed when they are simply efficiency programs veiled in do-gooder activities for PR gains.<\/p>\n

\u2018Climate change\u2019 \u2014 or the more provocative term \u2018global warming\u2019 \u00a0\u2014 is also abstract and, as is the case in the U.S., politicized beyond meaning. Despite compelling science and super storms, it is mired in the language of faith,\u00a0or humanity\u2019s birthright entitlements,\u00a0or government overstep.<\/p>\n

If there is any success in marketing climate change awareness, it\u2019s not yet in the mainstream marketing channels that speak to everyone, but in the domains of non-governmental organizations that preach primarily\u00a0to the converted. Groups like\u00a0World Wildlife Fund<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0350.org<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0have a head start in using clever, stakeholder-engaging marketing to link the way we live with the effects of climate change.\u00a0The Guardian ran arepresentative list<\/a>\u00a0in 2013.<\/p>\n

As a progressive consumer, I can send a few dollars to save a whale or spotted owl or starving child in Africa, but saving the climate needs a whole lot more engagement and sacrifice. Which may explain why Glaser\u2019s latest effort to woo the mainstream with fear falls short.<\/p>\n

Twenty years ago, social marketing researcher\u00a0Kim Witte<\/a>\u00a0established a framework that tracked campaigns \u2014 like health ads for anti-smoking, HIV\/AIDs prevention and teen pregnancy awareness \u2013 that used shame, fear and blame to scare people into better behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe minute that perceived threat exceeds perceived efficacy [the ability to effectively respond], then people begin to control their fear instead of the danger and they reject the message,\u201d she says in\u00a0The Use of Fear Appeals<\/a>, an undated presentation available online.<\/p>\n

Someone might agree with Glaser and might even be scared by his campaign \u2014 but they also feel powerless and, as a result, ignore it.<\/p>\n

Except, it\u2019s not like we haven\u2019t tackled abstract environmental bogeymen before.<\/p>\n

In the 1970s we dealt with the scary issue of ozone depletion caused by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in common products like aerosol cans. I remember the advocacy messaging in my comic books. By the 1990s, we marshaled a U.S. response to the dangers of\u00a0acid rain<\/a>\u00a0through emission caps and the Clean Air Act.<\/p>\n

Why not climate change?<\/p>\n

As a top-line summary: The deniers\u2019 work to sow doubt is effective, and the fix seems way too painful.\u00a0We need better terms of reference. We need to put the focus on the parties who can actually get creative ideas in place and at scale.<\/p>\n

As an alternative to \u2018sustainability,\u2019 the term \u2018resilience\u2019 is a great word \u2013 offering hope, the sense that we can rebound and that something can be done. Tom Steyer\u2019s\u00a0NextGen Climate<\/a>\u00a0is focusing the fight in the right arena \u2013 the ballot box, the stalled government process and candidates who believe in addressing climate change. The\u00a0NYC People\u2019s Climate March<\/a>\u00a0on Sept. 21 has the potential to vividly prove the widespread solidarity on this issue, swing momentum in the conversation and bring groups like\u00a0350.org<\/a>\u00a0into the mainstream. And, if the viral spread of the\u00a0Tesla Motors<\/a>\u00a0brand is any indication, the public is hungry for exciting alternatives, innovations and evidence of humanity\u2019s ability to practically address the environmental challenge.<\/p>\n

All of which points to an opportunity to reframe the overall conversation \u2013 in which marketers can be pivotal and constructive. To borrow from Witte, we might ask ourselves what allows the mainstream to feel effective in changing our collective \u2018risky\u2019 behavior as it relates to climate change? Voting, marching and innovating are achievable, empowering, scalable and marketable.<\/p>\n

Image credit: Flickr\/takver<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Based in New York City, Ian Edwards is a Sustainability Communications consultant and Sustainability MBA candidate at Bard. www.linkedin.com\/in\/ianedwards\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

originally published by Ian Edwards BardMBA ’15\u00a0on TriplePundit The underwhelming launch in August of\u00a0Milton Glaser\u2019s new graphic campaign \u2014 \u201cIt\u2019s not warming. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":360,"featured_media":729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[139,132,13,32,130],"class_list":["post-728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-350-org","tag-bard-mba","tag-climate-change","tag-new-york-city","tag-peoples-climate-march"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/files\/2015\/02\/IanBlog.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/360"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":732,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions\/732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}