Al Gore's The Alliance for Climate Protection Is Warming Up Madison Avenue

[RestoreGore]

http://adage.com/article?article_id=120088

Madison Ave. Warms to Climate Change
Shops Vie for Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection Biz
By Matthew Creamer and Brooke Capps

Published: August 27, 2007

Not too long ago, a premier ad agency wouldn't touch a campaign warning about the effects of global warming, fearing backlash from the automakers and oil companies that keep Madison Avenue's lights on. But now one of the most hotly contended pitches out there is for the Alliance for Climate Protection, the organization formed last year by Al Gore.
Al Gore has helped create a climate in which his business is hotly contested.

Four elite agencies -- Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Bartle Bogle Hegarty, the Martin Agency and Y&R -- are squaring off for the business and are expected to present to the former vice president himself early next month, according to executives familiar with the review. The budget for the "historic, three-to-five-year, multimedia global campaign," as the request for proposals puts it, is contingent on how much money the alliance raises. Media spending will likely be more than $100 million a year.

That elite shops aren't scared off from crafting environmental messaging that could be tacitly critical of big business's sometimes unsustainable ways is yet another sign of the mainstreaming of green thinking within the corporate world at large. And within the ad community it points to newfound willingness to embrace hot-button social causes. The alliance account, some are saying, could even lend some luster to the winner's roster, given many major marketers' recent embrace of sustainability throughout their value chains, from product development to manufacturing to marketing communications.

snip

Doing something

The Alliance's RFP is, as you might expect, part inspirational -- quoting Gandhi, M. Scott Peck, Erik Erikson, and of course Mr. Gore -- and part detailed description of the task ahead for the winner. That will involve convincing people to making the climate issue, which already has high awareness, a more actionable priority.

"The world probably doesn't need much more meek communication on the issues of climate change," said David Hessekiel, founder and president of the Cause Marketing Forum. "Anybody with a pulse probably now knows that there are serious environmental issues facing us, but that doesn't mean there's been a huge sea change in consumption of energy."

A winner likely will be chosen shortly after the final pitches, given that the Alliance wants at least a soft launch online in September, with test-market advertising beginning later in the fall. A spokesman for the Alliance declined to comment, as did agency representatives.

Despite the big media budget attached, agencies eager to change the world shouldn't expect to get rich in the process. The winner won't be expected to work on a pro-bono basis, but the RFP cautions that most of the Alliance's partners are working "at below their regular market rates."

end of excerpt.


The Alliance for Climate Protection

[RestoreGore]

1. I find the paragraph I bolded interesting...

This denotes a great seachange in corporate thinking and I believe that can be mostly attributed to Mr. Gore's endeavors through his organizations and through S.O.S//Live Earth. And it is a change coming voluntarily through them seeing the evidence and knowing that future business and profits depends on them doing what is morally right. This is exactly where these changes must begin in order to see progress on mitigating GHGs. This along with individuals doing all they can to lessen their own carbon footprint by also modifying their behavior and by letting companies know that it is now imperative for them to do the same will be what jumpstarts this global movement to sustain our species. And that is certianly not standing on the sidelines, that is standing on the frontlines.

[RestoreGore]

2. You want to challenge EXXON?

This is how you do it. And at least if no one else cares to respond in this thread regarding the impact this will have regarding solutions to this crisis, I hope that the information is passed on and word of Mr. Gore's work and the work of the bi-partisan Alliance becomes more well known, because this is standing up to the status quo in a brilliant way.

[RestoreGore]

3. Louis Vuitton donates to The Climate Project

http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view_article.php?article_id=84713

And the answer is: No one from the new set of endorsers stands to profit in cash for their participation.

Rather, on their behalf, Louis Vuitton is making a donation to Al Gore’s Climate Project. Specifically for Gorbachev, the donation will be made to Green Cross International, of which he is the founder and chair.

“Louis Vuitton’s support for The Climate Project is a major statement about how one prestigious company is taking the climate crisis seriously, both in words and actions,” says Gore in a press statement.

The Climate Project is a global program for “educating people about climate change and the solutions that will be necessary to solve the crisis.”

snip

Louis Vuitton is also transporting 60 percent of its products by sea, which is 40 times less harmful to the environment than air transport. It has eliminated plastic wrapping for its products, resulting in a saving of 20 tons of plastic.

For all its packaging, it uses eco-labelled paper. Its new and refurbished stores are designed and equipped with a lighting concept that consumes 30-percent less energy.

In other words, its conduct of business is geared toward “reconciling creativity and nature” as its founder had wished.

Not content with being a leader in sustainable manufacturing practices, Louis Vuitton has taken its advocacy a step farther by putting it on its marketing itinerary. By contributing to Al Gore’s project, it will now help educate people about the climate crisis.

It’s a trip worth taking, with or without check-in luggage.

end of excerpt.

[RestoreGore]

4. kick