The Viral Factory's Solar Controlled Earth Hour Countdown

Earth Hour is upon us once again. This Saturday the 27th residents and businesses around the world will shut off for an hour in an act to conserve energy and unite in awareness of the energy crisis world wide.

The Viral Factory produced and created a light sensitive or interactive stop motion animation with music from Hot Chip for the occasion.

The version on the Earth Hour site senses the light level via your computer's web cam and dictates the version of the story told. Check it out for yourself here: http://www.myearthhour.org/lightsoff

The YouTube version has a built in toggle light switch so that you can jump back and forth between the story lines...very cool. i love this idea and the video is really entertaining too.

Design Gives Extra Legs to NonProfit Smallbean

Today I'm proud to be affiliated (read acquaintances) with a brand spanking new nonprofit organization that is not only spreading the love around the world but looking damn good while doing it. Graphic Design friend and Classmate Sean Hewens is responsible for dreaming up and following through with the launch of Smallbean, an organization that takes slightly outdated iPods, digital cameras and other technological ephermera and sends it to communities around the world that dont have such high standards for the bigest, brightest, newest of the new - to be used as teaching aides and to document daily life.
The retro rabbit ear TV graphics for Smallbean scream vintage without being boxed in and the illustrated gadget pipeline by Michelle Morin is just darling. Don't you love the plane full of happy electronics snug in their seats?
Go over to Smallbean, play around the site, check out the rest of the graphics, and for crying out loud put your old iPod back to use by donating it to Smallbean!

The Fun Theory from VW

Musical Staircase, sidewalk video game, bottomless trash cans - sounds like Disney World doesn't it? It's actually an experiment to change societies habits for the better through fun via The Fun Theory an initiative from VW. I associate it with making a song in order to remember your Social Studies homework or Mary Poppins making a game out of cleaning your bedroom. Check it out.

Waste Deep Vintage Muppet PSA

In honor of Earth Day I was looking for some retro PSA's about recycling and green topics because I keep thinking how sad it is that the kids of my generation, (the 80's) have been learning to live green since a young age - but it took until 2008/2009 to become a trend in the states.

Here is a spot from The Better World Society, winner of a Telly Award in 1990, featuring Kermit and a cast of Muppet monsters in "Waste Deep."

Earth Hour 2009

This Saturday, March 28, 2009, 8:30 pm local time millions around the world will be turning out the lights to raise awareness about climate change. Here in Boston Governor Patrick will be turning off all non essential lights in state buildings to encourage the private sector to do the same. To see how you can participate and how your city and town is taking part visit Earth Hour.(art work from Shepard Fairey)

The Cohen Brothers Helm Spot for Clean Coal

Sponsored by ThisisReality.org, the Cohen Brothers direct a new PSA illuminating the newest in Clean Coal Technology.

For more information visit This Is Reality.

Update: Check out the behind the scenes footage here.

TOXIC Napoli - From VBS.tv

VBS has begun posting the latest in their Toxic series which explores some of the most polluted places on the planet, this time they take us to Naples Italy.

I have to say, after having a pretty shady experience in Naples myself when I visited as a backpacking student I wasn't shocked to hear the name in conjunction with corruption and dirt, but I could have never imagined what is in this series. So sad - such a beautiful place on the planet that has been so important for hundreds and thousands of years - has been so poorly neglected and taken advantage of.

The first 3 of an 8 episode series are now playing on VBS.tv. Below is episode 2, I found it truly disturbing.

Miniatures Used to Magnify Pollutants in Light Bulb Production

In a new PSA for WWF, miniatures shot against real life locations help to illustrate the unfortunatley filthy process of creating and environmentally "friendly" light bulb.

Directors Woods + Low of OPC credit the choice to use miniatures as a way to circomvent the over utilized stock footage that most audiences have become desensitized by. The “art installations filmed on location” combined with the gloomy monochromatic footage and bright pink product to illustrate the narative of the journey of the light bulb through production to our hands.

For more information visit: WWF

The Reality Campaign Reveals Clean Coal's Dirty Secret

The Reality Coalition sets us straight with their newest ad, "Smudge." The Reality Campaign, a joint effort of the Alliance for Climate Protection, League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council, National Wildlife Federation, and Sierra Club - tries it's hand at comedy and pulls the covers off of an Ad campaign that is championing clean coal, in which even the spokesman gets dirty.

we can solve it

Animated Videos from MTV Switch

The diversity of these three environmentally focused ads is part of what makes them so good. Switch is MTV Networks International's Global Climate Change Campaign. Their website is chock full of media, information, and tips and problems solving ideas to live a more environmentally helpful life. Enjoy the videos and stop on by the website to see loads more!

Green Song



Penguin



Trees Breathing

The Gloves Comes Off - Obama and McCain BOTH Have a Drinking Problem

Tappening.com promotes ditching the bottle and drinking straight from the tap...and using the candidates sure caught my attention.












The campaign comes from New York agency DiMassimo Goldstein.

Wecansolveit.org

I thought this commercial for wecansolveit.org was done so well, it took no dialog, only visuals and a message laid out plainly in white text to be affective. I immediately made my way to the website, of course I want to be a part of the cause, this is something i will proudly standing up for. The term that hit me the hardest was "free ourselves from our addiction to oil," I think addiction is the perfect word to illustrate the relearning that we will need to go through as a people, and it also implies the admittance that we have a problem that we all need to work hard to break.



Message from We Can Solve It

Together, We Can Repower America

Real change can happen real fast. We can strengthen our economy, lower fuel costs, free ourselves from our addiction to oil, and help solve the climate crisis. We can do this by switching to clean, free energy sources like the wind and sun -- and to do it within 10 years. Meeting this ambitious goal would create millions of new jobs, lead to permanently lower energy costs for families and help America lead the fight against global warming.

Timberland Podium

It's officially feeling fall here in New England, the leaves are changing colors and this Timberland commercial paints a perfect picture of the lifestyle personified by this local New England brand.



Timberland is a true environmental leader, a little while back I attended a Q&A with Timberland and Mullen media agency MediaHub about their Earthkeeper campaign, promoting their boot made with recycled rubber and plastics. The campaign itself took extra steps to live true to their Green Identity, including offsetting media purchases with wind energy credits and even recycling the canvas banner ads by having them made into tote bags and later sold at the Timberland stores.

The spot is via agency Leagas Delaney and production company Rattling Stick.

Joshua Allen Harris's Street Art for the Environmental Defense Fund

The viral quality of Joshua Allen Harris's inflatable street art has attracted a brand. The Environmental Defense Fund uses video of Harris's Polar Bears to help raise awareness about global warming and draw attention to the mode of transportation available beneath the city.



Harris's creatures circled the blogosphere a few months back when camera phone videos captured piles of garbage as they transformed into dancing animals and monsters when the subway system below the New York streets created enough wind to breathe life into them. I love the fantasy and playfulness that the art project brings into seemingly unremarkable New York scenes and an otherwise normal day in the life of a passerby. Hopefully this brand pairing will not only capture people's attention but also send a message that they will share.

Toxic Linfen China From VBS.tv

The latest in the Toxic series from VBS.tv focuses on what has been deemed the most polluted city in the world, Toxic Linfen China.

With all of the buzz surrounding Beijing's air quality leading up to the Olympic Games which begin tomorrow, VBS.tv decided to explore the pollution problem themselves starting with the worst of the worst.

Like the Garbage Island piece Toxic Linfen reports from on the ground, interviewing the public and experts on all sides of the issue - how did it get this way and can it change? Linfen is one of 16 Chinese cities in the top 20 most polluted list, primarily because of China's dependence on coal for fuel.




Check in at VBS.tv for the next in a 5 part series.

More than Pandas for the World Wildlife Federation

Lately I've been really consumed with global horrors like Darfur and Burma, it's really upsetting and makes me feel helpless.

These WWF ads reverted my attention to another global environmental cause that seems slightly less impossible. I love the use of the iconic brand image to point to other areas of the WWFs continuing fights and successes. The campaign comes via BBH China.

Garbage Island from VBS.tv

I love VBS.tv... They have some of the most interesting content I've seen on any medium. This newest installment in the Toxic series Garbage Island really spoke to me, maybe it was The Deadliest Catch marathon yesterday, i dunno, it's just good.