Underground Ads (Advertising, Design & Strategy for Non-Profits

We humans are a narrative-driven species. We tell stories as a way of making sense of the vast chaos unfolding around us. Stories are particularly prevalent is in political advertising—a field that Underground knows a thing or two about.

Yesterday, Heath showed the office a compelling presentation he created called “Telling American Stories.” It’s a tool to help progressives improve their communication on issues they care about, and it demonstrates the ways that we can use stories to our advantage—to captivate an audience, to highlight shared values, and forge a sense of community.

I left the presentation wondering about the relationship between stories and truth. As a communications firm, I think we know more than anyone that we’re not looking for the truest story, but for the most effective one. All stories, by their very nature, are riffs on reality, not reality itself. Stories are subjective—they can’t be true.

The untruth of stories doesn’t make them immoral or wrong; quite the opposite. When we’re using them to further a cause that we care about, they can be powerful tools to do good, despite their un-truth.

For example. This video uses a story to convince people that it’s important to take care of the environment. It says: for the panda to be happy, the tree must be happy, and for the tree to be happy, the sky must be happy—we’re all connected.

But is it a true story?

Consider: The trees don’t care about the polar bears, the sky doesn’t care about the trees, and nature is utterly indifferent to all. Humans care about all these things selfishly, because they ensure our survival, and that’s why we’re the only ones out there making videos about it.

This second story about human self-interest strikes me as a little closer to reality than the panda video, but it probably wouldn’t be as strong a motivator for taking care of the environment.

The stories we’re telling may not be true, but that’s no reason to stop telling them.

On Saturday, August 15, a group of about 300 people from over 30 organizations convened at the Richmond BART station to protest the expansion of Chevron’s Richmond refinery. They marched to the refinery where several were arrested in a nonviolent civil disobedience. Underground’s ChevWrong campaign was caught on camera by photographer Mike Kahn with Green Stock Media.

What do you do when the CEO of the lead financier of the worst environmental project on Earth won’t listen to reason?

Talk to his wife.

After a week of wheatpasting teasers throughout Toronto, at 7am yesterday, just as everyone was filtering into work, Rainforest Action Network shimmied up the flag poles in front of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and unfurled a giant banner that read, “Please help us Mrs. Nixon.com”.  When the RBC employees sat down at their desk and logged on to the website they were greeted with a fireside video appeal from Mike Brune (and made by your friends at Underground*) to Mrs. Nixon, the wife of Gord Nixon, the CEO of RBC, to please encourage her husband to stop the Tar Sands.

The Tar Sands is known as the most destructive project on Earth, contaminating water, killing animals, and extracting oil that produces three times the greenhouse gas emissions that conventionally produced oil (because of the energy it takes to extract and process Tar Sands oil).  As Mrs. Nixon has expressed her interest and support of the environment, and in particular water issues, it seemed especially important to let her know that her husband’s company - the RBC - is behind this nasty business.  RAN knew it would be tough to hear, but someone had to break it to her - and tell her what she can do to help stop put a stop to it.

Mrs. Nixon can do a lot by having a little chat with her husband at home.  You can do something too, by watching the video and sending an email to the Corporate Social Responsibility department at RBC and telling them you want them to stop funding the Tar Sands.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

For folks in the Bay Area tomorrow night, AIGA-SF is holding its biennial do-gooder design awards again this year, Cause/Affect - a biennial graphic design competition which celebrates the work of designers and organizations who set out to positively impact our society.

And great news… UNDERGROUND WON.  Our “Chevwrong” campaign that we created with Justice in Nigeria Now (JINN) calling attention to the social, health and environmental impact of Chevron’s dirty practices through out the world was selected for…. well, we don’t know what it was selected for.  Yet.  The awards are tomorrow night.  We’d love it if you’d join us to celebrate all the great design work being done for social and environmental issues.

The tix are free, and the address is below.  See you tomorrow at AIGA at 6.30pm.

AIGA San Francisco - 130 Sutter Street, #600 - San Francisco, CA 94104