Act on Co2

Analyse the two advertisements used the recent government ‘Act on CO2 initiative commenting on the effectiveness of the campaign.

Global warming is an issue that everyone is aware of, and there are many campaigns out there informing us about how to prevent it. Perhaps the most effective campaigns are those coming from Act on CO2. Be it changing how the story ends for our children, or driving 5 miles less a week, Act on CO2 is a campaign that is not afraid to be controversial. I will be talking about two such advertisements.

The first such advert is the ‘twinkle twinkle’ advert, where they change a popular children’s nursery rhyme to get their message across. The fact that they use a nursery rhyme gives the impression that preventing CO2 emissions is ‘child’s play’ and is easy. However it could also infer to the fact that eventually the CO2 emissions are going to affect our children.

The second advert is the car emissions advert, in which a car is portrayed as a chimney. This could refer to the car being a nuclear power plant chimney, which we all associate that as a big factor in CO2 emissions. Also this portrays the car in a negative way and would encourage more people to use it less.

In the ‘twinkle twinkle’ advert pink is the background colour. The colour pink connotes innocence and child-like features. This is to compliment the nursery rhyme and again emphasise the fact that what we do will come back and effect our children.

Whereas in the car advert a lot of blue and grey is used. This gives connotations of dullness, ice, pollution. This makes the audience think that if they carry on emitting CO2 then our world will become dull and colourless. The advert almost predicts our future and compels the audience to want to change it.

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The ‘twinkle twinkle’ advert also predicts the future. It shows a little girl looking outside the window at an almost desert like world, where there is a limp lifeless tree. There is a star above at the top of the advert, looking sad and sorry at the world beneath it. This implies that in the future, there will be nothing to look at, and the world will be a sorry sight , and again forces the audience to become involved in preventing that from happening.

Another technique used in both the ‘twinkle twinkle’ and the car advert is that the science and the facts behind the advert is on the page, but is on the bottom right corner in small print. This gives the effect that even though the science and facts are important, what is more important are our children, and our world. This also makes the whole advert look more attractive. Nobody would look at an advert about CO2 if it was all writing; people would ignore it, whereas if there is an eye-catching yet some-what misleading picture and nursery rhyme a wider range of people would read it.

The ‘car’ advert rotates the car so that the exhaust pipe is facing upwards. Also there is a close up of the car. This is so the audience can see nothing but the car, so there is no way of overlooking it, they have to face the facts. Also the fact that it is rotated is because the audience won’t at first understand what the picture is of. Whereas upon further inspection they realise that it is a car. This makes the audience ponder that looks can be deceiving and that the idea about cars being one of the biggest contributors of CO2 emissions, a fact we usually ignore may actually be true.

The colours and pictures of the ‘twinkle twinkle’ advert could also mean that the advert is aimed towards children. Perhaps the idea that the children would see the advert and question their parents as to what is going on. Their parents might then realise what they are doing by wasting electricity, and so on is going to affect their children. However children might do something as well. After all the carbon emissions will affect their lives. By making children aware of the possible outcomes of the future, they themselves would want to do something to make sure we change our ways to prevent our future from ending up like that.

On both the adverts, at the bottom of the advert there is the ‘search online for ACT ON CO2’ line. This is positioned at the bottom, because after looking at the two adverts and the seriousness of the message being given, the audience will begin to wonder how they can prevent this from happening. Then by looking at the bottom they find out where they can go for advice on how to prevent it. This encourages parents to visit the Act on CO2 website and see the current campaigns, the consequences and how to prevent it.

The ‘car’ advert shows a small sun at the top of the advert, which seems quite far away. This connotes hope. It shows the audience that although the current state of the world is worsening, that there is hope and there is something that can be done. Also the sun could symbolise a goal. The goal of a clean, safer, new world, where there is less CO2 emissions and the world is in a much better state. The fact that the sun is far away, means that the goal is hard to achieve and is far, but it is achievable. This makes the audience want to reach and achieve that goal.

Similarly ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ is an old nursery rhyme, which many people remember. The advert is almost nostalgic, making the audience remember ‘the good old days’ where there was very little CO2 emissions and Global warming was not an issue. It would make the audience want to go back to that time and do something to change the state if the world. It would also make the audience feel guilty. When they were younger, they had no worries about CO2 and global warming, and because of them, their children are going to have to worry about it. However this could also mean that children mimic their elders. Be it an older brother or sister, parents or grandparents children are always going to copy them. Whether it’s wearing similar clothes, makeup or having a large carbon footprint, children will always do what an elder has done. This makes the older generation feel responsible, and want to change their ways before it’s too late. Their parents don’t want their children to follow in their ‘carbon’ footsteps.

Overall I think that both adverts are very effective in getting their message across and informing the world about CO2 emissions. I think that the ‘twinkle twinkle’ advert would attract a wide range of people with its layout and colours and would have a bigger effect. The ‘twinkle twinkle’ advert hits a ‘soft spot’ for everyone, children. Everyone always wants the best for their children and will do whatever it takes to achieve that, even change their lifestyle. The car advert is also effective as it sets a target for the audience to ‘drive 5 miles less a week’. This makes the audience want to persevere and get that target, so they can have a sense of accomplishment. As a campaign the ‘twinkle twinkle’ advert and the car advert work well together. They show the audience two different sides of the advert. I think that the car advert shows what is causing some of the carbon emissions and the ‘twinkle twinkle’ advert foreshadows the possible future if we do not stop. They’re almost the cause and consequence of carbon emissions.

Sophie Kiani 11C

English Coursework

Media