Eco-Advertising Campaigns -- Clever To Cliche, What Really Compels You To Make A Difference In The World?

You can be an avid environmentalist, enthusiastic vegetarian or proponent of infinite charitable causes and still be slightly, moderately or on occasion intensely turned off by some of the advertising campaigns floating around in our pop culture consciousness -- this tv commercial featuring polar bears is a perfect example.

Conversely, some forms of advertising can make you feel inspired...riled up...poised and ready to get involved and make a genuine difference in the world.

Promoting any type of cerebral and emotional concept to the general population at large -- as opposed to marketing tangible objects and bling -- presents an extra challenge to the men and women hatching up today's marketing materials.

Simply put, not much surprises us anymore, so advertising executives must continually bend over backwards to shake us up, catch our attention and compel us either to buy, believe or rally around their brand.

Emotion is generally a good tactic, and while everyone from here to the ends of the Earth knows that something fishy has been happening with our environment for a while now (just as practically every human being on the planet can identify what this can represents, no matter the language emblazoned in white)....

what happens when even pangs of guilt aren't enough to compel us to embrace change and act on our convictions rather than continue to just shrug our shoulders?

Organizations like the 45 year old World Wildlife Fund are faced with this conundrum on a regular basis.

As a nonprofit organization, they rely on the donations of their 5 million global supporters to keep afloat and fund their diverse conservation projects, but in order to elicit the backing of new generations, it's absolutely essential that they channel serious money into advertising that cracks through our jaded sensibilities.

For anyone who is unclear regarding their motivations, every area of their work is influenced by climate change -- from emissions reduction and forest conservation to helping species and ecosystems adapt to irreversable changes.

To get their message out, they've run some outstandingly clever campaigns throughout the years which demonstrate just how inspired the professionals in the advertising industry can be.

And then there's their latest collection of ads featuring models striking animalistic poses...visually stunning, YES...but they make me feel like I got jipped. 

Personally, I've grown accustomed to a certain standard in the WWF's advertising campaigns -- one that appeals more to the thinker than the fashion magazine enthusiast.

These images seem a little too Abercrombie & Fitch to me, and while I realize that toned, sleek physiques sell magazines, clothing, jewels, music and pretty much everything else in this world, I'm not so sure I want them to sell me my environmental consciousness, too.

The tagline featured on these ads, 'Their extinction is ours as well' definitely sends the message home, but I am inclined to think that they could have worked a lot harder on the visual side of their presentation. What do you think?

Examining these last two classic ads from WWF's heyday, it seems to me that they are respecting my intelligence far more by engaging my brain than with the former series of three animalistic models which require that I do nothing more than ogle.