I'm stunned. I thought I was a pretty jaded observer of the "liberal media", but I watched this happen in real time today. I've just watched a coordinated effort by the right wing propaganda machine to undermine a significant public awareness campaign by the World Wildlife Fund that was launched earlier this week.
I am a web designer by trade, and late this morning at one of the internet forums for the industry someone said "Hey, have you guys seen this tasteless advert?" I clicked on the link and was confronted by an image of tens of airliners heading to crash 9-11 style into Manhattan. A Manahattan skyline that still had the Twin Towers.
"Wow. That IS pretty tasteless" I thought. Who would do such an ad? I thought to myself? Especially on the eve of the 9-11 anniversary. I was shocked to discover the ad had the imprint of the World Wildlife Fund.
Now they've done some "edgy" ads in the past, but I thought this was a bit beyond the pale. As the conversation went on at this particular forum among web and print professionals it turns out that the ad was produced by a Brazilian ad agency, apparently for a media buy in Israel. Odd. Furthermore, the "ad" was simply a piece of "spec" work, something done by an ad agency to shop to a client to see if they would be interested. So, the World Wildlife Fund had NOTHING to do with the production of this image. Nothing.
Now, at this point, about 2pm EST this afternoon, I bounce over to the WWF's website and find nothing about this ad, however I do find this press release:
"WASHINGTON, DC, August 25, 2009 – World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has launched a national public awareness campaign urging voters to contact their Senators in support of legislation that would help protect the nation and the world from potentially devastating impacts of climate change.
The campaign officially kicked-off with TV ads debuting in five states that will be key to passage of a climate bill in the US Senate: Alaska, Indiana, Maine, Montana and North Dakota. Nationally, WWF introduced the website, ActForOurFuture.org, which provides information about the impact climate change is already having on the U.S. and how people can actively support climate legislation, which is expected to be introduced in the Senate in early September."
Within the hour Michelle Malkin is stirring the pot, "how is it that the WWF didn’t know about the ad? It won a public service “merit award” earlier this year. Was the WWF unaware of DDB’s checkered history?...The denials from the companies that keep hiring this ad agency are starting to ring hollow, don’t you think?"
Huh. I sat back. Stunned. Here was a manufactured ad produced for a client that didn't ask for it for a media market it doesn't buy for, featuring a horrific graphic bit of imagery on the eve of 9-11 anniversary. It was already being denounced on the right wing blogs before the World Wildlife Fund even knew it existed on the web.
Within the following hour the WWF released this statement:
"WWF strongly condemns this offensive and tasteless ad and did not authorize its production or publication. It is our understanding that it was a concept offered by an outside advertising agency seeking our business in Brazil. The concept was summarily rejected by WWF and should never have seen the light of day. It is an unauthorized use of our logo and we are aggressively pursuing action to have it removed from websites where it is being currently featured. We strongly condemn the messages and the images portrayed in this ad. On behalf of WWF, here in the US and around the world, we can promise you this ad does not in any way reflect the thoughts and feelings of the people of our organization."
I leaned back in my chair at 5:05 EST this afternoon, relating this to a friend of mine on the phone and said, "You know, this will be on FOX news before the morning."
As I said at the top of the piece, the lead in for my local affiliate Fox station during tonights broadcast of Hell's Kitchen had the two anchors saying "What is this ad that is shocking everyone?" Haven't watched the Fox News network, but they feature it on their website here.
Even more curious, is the language Malkin used in her headline, "Environmentalists green-washing 9/11". The term "green washing" started turning up in the last few days in the right wing blog-o-sphere. For example, here, here and here.
So, to recap, an environmental organization launches a massive public awareness media buy in support of US climate legislation and within 48 hours an bogus ad turns up on the internet that impinges the integrity of that organization which winds it's way from professional forums, through the right wing blogosphere to Fox news, reporting "the controversy", even though the organization itself denounced any involvement at all.
Your "liberal media" at work. I've reported, you decide.
UPDATE: I am not trying to say that Fox news is the liberal media, as we all know. However, the point is to get the image and the association of the environmental movement and this particular climate legislation as "UnAmerican". I just searched Google news and now found 39 stories in the media, including the New York Times discussing this entirely bogus story. This is how they work. They plant the seed, the media magnifies it, and the job is done. The truth doesn't matter. All that is necessary is the emotional association and the repetition. In the "liberal media".
UPDATE: Ah, now NBC is picking up reporting the controversy. How many people who don't work in media or advertising even know what "spec work" is, I wonder?
ONE FINAL OBSERVATION: It's NOT about the ad. It's about the timeline. Look, companies and graphic students and designers do all kinds of horrific or bad "ads" for spec purposes all the time. That's not the issue. The issue is that on August 26th the WWF launched a significant public awareness campaign to support climate legislation that debuted in Alaska, Indiana, Maine, Montana and North Dakota. In less than a week this "ad" is found and posted on graphic design trade sites, quickly gets picked up by Michelle Malkin, et. al and ends up as a topic of discussion in both national and local news by the end of the day that associates the WWF with tainting the memory of 9-11. Think about it. Just as they launch a national campaign to address climate change.
If you think this is accidental, or one of "those things that happen on the web", you haven't been paying attention. This is a manufactured and promoted smear campaign of the WWF. It's the timeline, NOT the ad.
UPDATE 9/2/2009 Oh. There's a video too now. Unreal.
That's great. Now the news media will have a video clip to run instead of just a static image.
At the 2 second mark in the video we get a date stamp of 06.05.2009. Considering this is Brazilian made that means May 6, 2009. So that's too late for consideration or entry in the One Show (the show where the print ad won a merit mention) as the first round consideration was already done by April 6. So this video was made AFTER entry into the One Show, which is AFTER the WWF rejected the spec work. Grows more suspicious.
UPDATE: Interesting, now even the ad agency that did the spec work is denying any role in the video:
"In a separate mishap in a bad week for DDB Brasil, "Tsunami" accidentally ended up in a folder for work to be sent to journalists by the agency's public-relations department and was mistakenly sent to Ad Age sibling Creativity this week as though it were a new print ad. It was described in the e-mail as "a great campaign."
A DDB Brasil spokesperson in Sao Paulo said a video version of the ad being circulated on the internet was not done or authorized by the agency or the client. She said DDB execs first saw the video, which features slightly different copy, on the internet and don't know who created it. "