"Just stop oil" ? Just start THINKING

Perhaps the greatest crime of those “Just Stop Oil” stunts, and the reason why they should be discussed on LinkedIn of all places, is how strategically inept they are.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Yet another triggered white male throwing expletives at the well-intended, “brave”, “highly visible” actions of eco-warriors that also happen to be, well, not male. Textbook recipe for backlash cancellation, innit.

And yet, watch me not giving two s...ts about any suspicions of boomer-knee-jerkism, because a) I happen to very much sympathize with the broader cause of fighting climate change; b) I could care less about the gender or creed of the people involved; c) I'm not a boomer (look up the definition; bad enough that I'm about to turn 50... Let's please not make my mood worse, for everyone's sake around me); and d) more importantly, my criticism is in actual fact aimed, not at the Instagram-friendly practitioners of the newly fashionable sport that is hurling various colorful substances at famous masterpieces, but at the supposed masterminds behind said high-profile interventions. The Roger Hallams of this world, who think of themselves as knights in white shining armour defending the most noble of causes, when they are, in fact, only effective in their “defense” of the environment in the same way that the occasional kick in the crotch is effective at contraception. (Come to think of it, Hallam was fired by “Extinction Rebellion,” officially for some openly anti-Semitic comments about the Holocaust, and less officially because he just wasn’t smart enough to get the job done. Imagine that : being fired by “Extinction Rebellion”, the geniuses who believe destroying trainloads of cereal actually helps in the fight against world hunger, because you’re not smart enough. That’s a little like getting fired from the Rolling Stones because you’re too old. End of digression.)

Anyway. Back to soup-hurling at Van Gogh. Yes, it’s criminally stupid on a lot of levels. But especially one, the one that justifies posting on the subject on LinkedIn, which is supposed to be a professional network. And of course I'll get to that one last.

Let’s first get the obvious, much-discussed levels of stupid out of the way. First level – the logic behind the interventions, whatever it is (we should choose between art and the environment ? Culture and nature ? Van Gogh put the V in SUV ? WTF ?) is boneheaded to the extreme, which isn’t going to help convince anyone that action against climate change is the smart thing to do for survival. Second – this sort of childish tantrum feeds the myth, which climate-change-skeptics (yes, there's a few of them left) are only too happy to entertain, that action against global warming is a thing for teenagers and idiots, and not the responsible, grown-up thing to do : talk about sawing off the branch you’re sitting on. Third level of stupid – honestly ? Destroying bona fide masterpieces that helped define beauty in their time is going to accomplish anything, apart from convincing anyone that the vast majority of Gen Z has just about as much culture as the Nevada desert, as much taste as a week-old open can of Coke, and the memory span of a tropical mosquito ? Fourth level of stupid – your idea of raising “awareness” around climate change and helping the environment is wasting food and using glue ? Way to go with the symbols. And I’m not getting into the tons of chemicals required to produce the shite our highly fashionable warriors seem intent on destroying their hair with.

All of these are true, and they explain the ineffectiveness of all those stunts at achieving anything than buzz (urgh), which in and of itself will accomplish NOTHING. But then, there’s the ultimate level of stupid, the one that should cost everyone involved at the top their jobs : the strategic ineptitude of the whole thing.

Rule 101 of effective communications development : if you want to convince anyone to change their established habits, especially deeply engrained ones, you’d better know what stands in the way – the trial barriers or action barriers in their minds, to be phrased and pinpointed with utmost precision, so that you can single-mindedly focus on the most common and critical one in your brief - in order for any creative agency to come up with the exact right idea that will lift them. That’s one of the key strategic choices to make as early as possible in any initiative – which barrier in the mind of your target consumer are you going against, single-mindedly.

And here’s the thing : THROWING PAINT OR SOUP OR WHATEVER YOU WANNA THROW AT THE WORKS OF VAN GOGH OR MONET "ADDRESSES" A BARRIER TO ACTION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE THAT SIMPLY DOES NOT EXIST IN ANYONE'S MINDS. ??Bringing attention to climate issues?? ? Really ? Seriously ? “Bringing attention” to the issue is the name of the game ? Like everyone and every media hasn’t been banging on about it for over 15 years ? Like there’s anyone left in any self respecting democracy that doesn’t KNOW ? Who doesn't FEEL the effects, everyday, everywhere ? Like anyone needs BUZZ to realize what's going on ? (I mean, apart from the usual minority of conspiracy-loving loonies and right-wing populists or their followers, who have made a business out of mass-producing moronic theories about, well, everything. I'm restricting the analysis to SANE people, whom I assume are by and large the target of those stunts.)

The problem is NOT that no one is ??aware?? of climate change – and even if it was, being ??aware?? of an issue or a benefit has never, ever been enough to cause action. In fact, that Pavlovian belief that all it takes for any consumer to eat up your benefit is to be made "aware" of it is the Jean-Claude Van Damme level of creative briefing. It was already ridiculous in the 80's : and unlike many things 80's, it hasn't improved with time.

There are many REAL barriers to meaningful action against climate change or broad based demand for political action against it - barriers which DO need to be addressed. A few examples to make the point : a) the majority of us feel uncertain about where to start or whether any individual acts will mean anything given the magnitude of the issue (and before it was taken over by relativist imbeciles, Amnesty International did a wonderful job of going against that one in their hugely successful early naughties campaigns); b) many of us feel angry about being pointed put as guilty for it problem (“your car and your TV are killing us, maaaan”), when 80% of the seems to come from the stupidly suicidal actions of governments like China (and their deliriously destructive industrial policies), India (who seem intent on making China look like the Shire) or Qatar (air-condish’ed open air stadium built by slaves in the middle of a burning hot desert, anyone ?) - which would require for people to have their eyes opened about the fact that just because they can help with the solution doesn't mean they have to feel like they're part of the problem; c) there’s also much confusion as to whether some of the solutions aren’t making the problem worse rather than solving it (see the on-going debate about whether moving the planet to electrical cars is such a brilliant idea after all). To name but a few.

ALL of those barriers, and more, exist at some degree. NONE of those will be addressed by the infantile, self-glorifying, ??anti-art?? actions of a bunch of TikTok cardboard-cutout activists, remote-controlled by the equally short-sighted wannabes at the head of Just Stop Oil or Extinction Rebellion. In fact, said actions are probably putting off a lot of skeptics – and making it easy to dismiss the whole issue as “left-wing teenage delirium”. So not only is that sort of ??activism?? not rooted in actual care for the community at large – it’s criminally, infuriatingly counter-productive, largely because instead of thinking strategically about how to REALLY change people’s behavior, the "heads" behind it are thinking about how to become famous for 15 minutes. Guy Debord and Andy Warhol are probably laughing themselves silly in their graves right now. Unfortunately, no one else is, and until people with a genuine concern and basic strategic skills take those NGO’s over – the joke will continue to be on us.

And as jokes go, it's just as bad as the strategic thinking behind it - or complete absence thereof.

#strategy #communicationdesign #briefing #juststopoil #climatechange #climatechangeaction #activism