In the world today, climate change is a commonly talked about subject. People over the last couple centuries have left ever growing footprints of pollution in our wake. People have finally started to realize that if we want to keep the planet alive we need to start cleaning up after ourselves and not leave our mess lying around like children.
I’ve found two advertisements from opposite sides of the world that both portray the same message. Things are not right, and we need to correct them. That’s about where the obvious similarities end in these two ads. They use different methods of getting their message across.
One of my advertisements is out of Singapore. This ad tries to make a humorous attempt to bring awareness to the atmospheric pollution problem. The ad consists of two images, on one side a child is playing in the sand as the Wicked Witch of the West falls out of the sky on her broom in front of him to land face first in the sand. In the second image, Cupid has just fallen out of the sky unconscious to land on and damage a vehicle. They used well-known fictional characters that are known to be up in the air. Both photos used in this ad have very dulled down colours, especially in the sky that seems overcast. The images are visually strong with the composition of the photos.
I would consider this ad effective and I thought rather clever. It’s like a warning to us. If those characters cannot survive in the atmosphere because of the pollution, how long will we be able to survive in that same atmosphere? If they can get people to start being more aware of the atmospheric pollution then we can start to change the problem.
The second ad was from North America. It uses more of an outright scare tactic than its Singaporean counterpart, which is what you have to do for many people nowadays. If it does not affect them, they don’t care, so you have to make them realize they are in danger from this too. The image they use is a man with the face and skin of a rather grotesque looking fish with the caption “Stop climate change before it changes you.” It’s sad that we live in a world that you have to scare people in caring but it makes this advertisement much more effective.
The ad has a simple background with a dark murky gray tone. Almost like that of polluted water. It does not draw away from the scare they want to deliver. This image fills the whole ad. The possibility that climate change will change us is what they want the public to focus on. This ad does not bring any joyful thoughts to mind, it’s meant to be bleak so people will hopefully remember and think about it.