Effective use of the media to reduce emissions
Like it or not, developed countries have become dependent on the internal combustion engine for both business and personal transportation. While efforts have been made to reduce harmful emissions in recent years, only a small dent has been made. Corn has been proposed as an earth-friendly fuel for cars but more than 75% of the energy extracted from it is spent producing it. The growing shortage of food worldwide is making many people think twice about using food to fuel transportation. And when ethanol burns, it produces carbon dioxide just as oil-based gasoline does.
Decreasing the incredible amount of pollution thrown off by cars and trucks is imperative; our lives may literally depend upon it. But convincing people to either give up their cars or cut down on their use haven’t been very effective so far. A relatively small number of environmentally-conscious people have begun to use bicycles and public transportation as well as their own two feet in order to reduce their personal carbon footprint, but the vast majority of drivers refuse to abandon their cars or cut their usage.
The answer may lie in the hands of the very people who created the artificial demand for more and more cars—the advertising media. Since the invention and widespread usage of television, the media (hired by the car manufacturers, of course) has been doing a great job of tying self image to our mode of transportation. The car has become a symbol of masculinity, competence, wealth, coolness, femininity, independence and every other positive emotion one can conjure up. On the other hand, environmental issues have concentrated in large part on the consumer’s conscience and sense of duty, appealing to their minds instead of their emotions.
Perhaps the best way to reduce automobile emissions would be to engage an effective and proven ad agency to use the philosophy of automobile ads to encourage drivers to conserve energy and cut pollution. What if sexiness was hinged on the fact that a person refused to own a car? Or if wealth was measured by the model of human powered or electric cars that a person owns? We would have a hard time finding where to put all that scrap metal that used to be status-symbol cars and SUVs! The demand for earth friendly transportation would soar, forcing more innovation and creativity. Within ten years, the internal combustion engine would probably be a thing of the past and global warming would be positively impacted, maybe to the point of making a significant difference.
We must remember that if we want those responsible for global warming and pollution to try to reverse the situation, we will have to use the same strategies that encouraged them to help create it in the first place. Appeals to the conscience do not work, as evidenced by the public transportation numbers. Only when gas became uncomfortably expensive did people alter their driving habits. Appealing to their self image would be even more effective and have an effect that outlasts the cost of gasoline.
