I admire Canadian eco warrior, Josh Rachlis for his ability to weave an entertaining environmental tale whilst avoiding being 'boring or scarey' as he says in this attached presentation. As I mention in a recent blog post here at Converse Conserve about creative environmental messaging, it helps to create a distraction from the core message by introducing other themes to make the message more interesting, and I would add 'tug at the heart strings'. Josh does this by introducing the eco hero motif and his quest for love theme, as well, which resonates through his videos with an environmental message. 

Here is the link to the presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eiErkAKCNY

Josh is running with the Green Party of Ontario, Canada.  We need more Greens candidates like Josh in Australia, don't we! 

Love this idea that some Northcote-rians came up with of decorating bollards that lead on to the Merri Park and Merri Creek. It's part of the 'drive with heart' campaign to get drivers to notice their local environment more and SLOW DOWN.  The bollards line the edge of the park, and as you take the corner.  (This happens to be one of those corners where a lot of drivers come round quickly at peak hour to cut through to avoid heavily trafficked, main roads - AKA rat-running).   No matter how fast you come around, these drivers can't help notice about 10 of them fancily attired.  It's certainly more fun than other more boring measures to slow down your local traffic!  

We really needed some folks conducting observations to see whether or not the traffic has slowed down since these bollards were dressed up. 

Last year according to an article in the Leader news, Thornbury-ians did something similar by decorating their streets with scarecrows.  

Wait, and we thought we were clever learning how to communicate in different languages and using signs as well. Well, the incredible thing about our closest relatives, the great apes, is that they can learn to communicate with us in sign language. 

I stumbled upon this fantastic video on Facebook - a Campaign Video about palm oil and it's mightily powerful in its message. 

Here is the link. 

The campaign story is the bringing together of a young girl, Lena and Strawberry an orangutan in front of computers who communicate in sign language about the fact that palm oil is destroying orangutan habitats. The campaign message works because (1) the characters in the video are ones we like and/or can identify with and (2) because it's a heartfelt video that tells a story about what each of them eats and the power to change that, and (3) will appeal to kids and people of all ages because of the inventive campaign styles, and don't we all love talking animals!  

Depending on the date of release I will add it to my top 2013 campaigns. The writers at this website are always looking to embrace campaigns that engage with the audience's emotions and lessen the intellectual and moral undertones. 

Enjoy!