Having served as America's Vice President, having created a slideshow powerful enough to win an Oscar, and having won a Nobel Prize, one can assume Al Gore is a smart man. Everyone should have been interested, then, when two weeks ago Gore announced his next move--his launch of a $300-million dollar grassroots campaign to halt global warming, which includes a slew of print and television ads. It seems Al Gore gets it right (again).
Gore's emphasis on advertising reminded me of a time a little more than five years ago when I sat in the first Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation meeting in 2002 on "Marine Biodiversity in the Present: The Known , Unknown, and Unknowable" and Randy Olson stood up and declared he just needed $2 million. With that money, Olson said he would spend $100,000 to make an ad about the state of our oceans and the rest to buy airtime during the Superbowl. Some ocean philanthropists gave a chuckle--thought the idea was clever but unrealistic--others gave a snort thinking the idea was simply dumb.
But Al Gore is smart. And he is using the money he has made from giving talks and winning prizes to do exactly what Randy Olson suggested we do for our oceans five years ago. Congratulations Al. Maybe one day the oceans will get a Gore. And maybe people will even listen to Randy Olson who had it right all along.
Great communicators think alike.
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I saw the 60 Minutes segment on Gore a couple weeks ago. THe campaign looks very powerful. Can't wait.
I'm not at all convinced that spending $300 mn on an advertising campaign is either 'grassroots' or a good investment, but I imagine that the folks he's raised the money from want to see something media-related come of it. It's certainly needed, but he's already done an awful lot of that kind of thing, and funding actual on the ground organizing to educate people where they live would cost the same and reach more hearts and minds, I'm willing to bet.
Erik
Orion Grassroots Network
evet thanks you good