Using old film clips of celebrities, everyday people, even animated characters–each uttering a word or two or at most three–ad agency Draftfcb, Toronto, cobbled together the following message for a World Wildlife Fund-Canada (WWF-Canada) PSA titled “Carbon Neutral”: “To make the world’s first zero carbon emissions commercial, we didn’t use a big film studio. All we used were these old film clips and a little imagination.”
There are some familiar faces and voices in this message, including those of Richard Branson, Betty White, Shelley Long and Kelsey Grammer. There are several unfamiliar faces of everyday people, even a newscaster and what appears to be a host of an auto repair show from yesteryear. Some of the clips date back as long ago as 60 years.
This painstaking assembly of individual unrelated words conveys a pro-environmental message, which is followed by a supered thought which appears against a black backdrop: “Imagine what you can do to reduce global warming.”
The World Wildlife Fund logo is then shown on screen, accompanied by the organization’s website address (wwf.ca).
Energy efficient WWF-Canada marketing VP Pam Davis said the new commercial employed a low-emissions working style, using everything from online collaboration to public transit. The project was also subjected to an emissions audit by a consulting engineer, and carbon offsets were purchased to counter the small amounts of energy used in editing and production.
Jeremy Marten, VP/group account director at Draftfcb, Toronto, noted that “a lot of people came forward and got involved, searching through archives and donating film clips–it was a very cooperative effort.”
“Carbon Neutral” was edited by Johnny D of School, Toronto. The Draftfcb team included CCO Robin Heisey, associate creative directors Joe Piccolo and Chris Taciuk, and producer Judy Hamilton.
