While the new London Olympic Games logo launch is currently sucking all the oxygen out of the design blogosphere, there’s another controversy that’s simmering over Canada’s Ontario governments new ‘green friendly’ Flick Off campaign and the logo that represents it. Launched in April by Environment Minister Laurel Broten and British billionaire Richard Branson (of the Virgin empire fame), the tongue-in-cheek campaign alludes to a four-letter word and the logo uses a typeface that makes the capital letters “L” and “I” look like a “U.” Here’s one of the spots now playing on the Tee Vee -
Obviously aimed at the teen set and attempting to speak to them on their own terms, I think the campaign is pretty effective, and encapsulates the concept behind it fairly decently. When my daughter told me about it, we had a chuckle, and then a serious discussion about energy conservation. Exactly what the creators had hoped:
Flick Off is a movement to fight climate change by getting people to use less energy. We need you to Flick Off, and tell everyone you know to Flick Off. If everybody starts conserving energy it’ll make a huge difference. Here’s why: we burn fossil fuels for energy. Burning fossil fuels releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases. And greenhouse gases, well, they came by their name honestly. They turn our super fabulous planet into a greenhouse. The biggest culprits? Coal for electricity. And oil for cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships.
Why should we Flick Off? It’s simple—we waste energy like crazy. North Americans are the undisputed energy gluttons of the world. We use old, crappy, inefficient technology; we haven’t embraced wind and solar power; and we have the worst habits on the planet.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Flick Off is about awareness. It’s getting people to talk about the planet—how we use it, how we abuse it, how we can change our actions. Flick Off is about solutions. It’s making changes in your life, every day, then telling other people how easy it was to do.
Are you starting to get the picture? Flick Off. The more you do it, the cooler it gets. The planet, that is.
The controversy is exactly what the originators of the campaign were after. This wasn’t one of those ‘ohmygawd, how could you have let me approve that logo – didn’t you see what it looked like from a distance‘ moments (unlike the ohmygawd – that logo looks just like Lisa Simpson reaction to the recent Olympic Games logo fiasco over in Blightly). Far from it. This is a carefully executed and concepted (is that even a word) campaign designed to appeal to the young’uns because it is irrevrant and cheeky. Check out the campaign’s web site destinations, which include “Are we Flicked” and “Go Flick Yourself“-
As with any controversial campaign there’s always someone who will take offence and try to spoil all the fun. The opposition parties are all in a huff –
NDP critic Peter Kormos says the government’s endorsement of the campaign will anger parents concerned about the use of foul language by their children. “It’s silly, it’s embarrassing, and clearly it’s an ad agency that has a bunch of flickin’ amateurs as employees,” said Kormos.
The Conservatives are equally concerned about the litte ones (and who will think of the chillens) –
Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory echoed Kormos’s sentiments, though not as strongly. “I say it’s a bad judgment,” said Tory. “It shouldn’t be done this way. There are plenty of ways to educate kids without using language like this.”
Yeah, well they can all – dare I say it – Flick Off. I’d also point out that if the campaign was rolled-out without the obvious reference to the bad language, it would have taken some teen about 5 nano-seconds to create a version that did, and post the customized version on You Tube, Flikr and other web portals. The agency beat ‘m to the punch. Some others also think the campaign is brilliant.
Flick Off Summary – For teens and 20-somethings, Flick off, be more energy-responsible. For older folks bothered by the language – get real and think about the big picture. For business owners and marketers – a practical marketing lesson.
Others, some of them teens, are offended.
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