May 02, 2005
5/2 - Sex, Advertising, and the disaster known as "Communicating Ocean Conservation"
I spent part of last Thursday at a workshop of "ocean communicators" at Long Beach Aquarium. It was sixty very nice people who really want the public to rally to the support of ocean conservation but can't figure out why the mass audience takes no interest in their "messaging." So let's talk about this elusive mass audience of America. "How can we reach them?" It's the age old question for these polite and well mannered "communicators."
Lest we forget, "sex sells." Here's an article in today's USA Today to remind you. And conversely, utter and complete sexlessness does not sell. Over the past year I've taken to talking about what I learned in acting class -- that there are four important organs in the body when it comes to connecting with a mass audience: the head, the heart, the gut, and the lower organs. The further down you can move the creative process, the larger the audience you will connect with. And moving things down to the lowest organs produces the "sex sells" phenomenon this article talks about.
Now consider this little rule in relation to the people in charge of communicating ocean conservation (without naming any names). Are they good at pulling heart strings? Do they have a cutting edge sense of humor? Are they sexy?
Where does this line of thought lead you? To the conclusions of the Packard-funded "Turning the Tides" report which concluded, "Ocean conservationists are much better at policy than politics." It's a movement run by affluent white brainiacs. Nice folks, but not the face of mainstream America.
Prudes: If you find this hopelessly offensive, you may be more a part of the problem for ocean conservation than the solution