Don’t be evil…

Meet Google. The noun that became a verb. The world’s favourite search engine, and the company whose motto is “Don’t be evil...”
Google CEO Eric Schmidt: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

Graphics by Patrick Clair, written by Elmo Keep and Jon Casimir.

The Impossible Hamster

What the impossible hamster has to teach us about economic growth. A animation from the Impossible Hamster Club about crazy consumption and really gross domestic product

“We wanted to confront people with the meaning and logical conclusion of the promise of endless economic growth. We used a hamster to illustrate what would happen if there were no limits to growth because they double in size each week before reaching maturity at around 6 weeks. But if a hamster grew at the same rate until its first birthday, wed be looking at a nine billion tonne hamster, which ate more than a years worth of world maize production every day. There are reasons in nature, why things dont grow indefinitely. As things are in nature, sooner or later, so they must be in the economy. As economic growth rises, we are pushing the planet ever closer to, and beyond some very real environmental limits. With every doubling in the global economy we use the equivalent in resources of all of the previous doublings combined.”

Darth Bottle

Sneakers are made from recycled plastic bottles.

A fresh take on recycling through stop motion. I like!
This ad runs (or ran) in Austria, is about recycling PET bottles and other than the fact that it was produced by SWAMP-Trickfilmstudio I was unable to find any more info about it. Feel free to add info in the comments.

Change Your Bank

Don’t like your bank? Change it. Change Your Bank is a grassroots campaign asking consumers to complain to their banks about ridiculous bank bonuses and payscales. In the UK banks such as the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) which have been bailed out by the taxpayer are awarding senior executives enormous bonuses for lacklustre performance. Not only is this unfair, it’s contributing towards a society which is more and more unequal – where people who move money around for a living are rewarded far, far more than nurses, care workers, firefighters etc.

The campaign is still in its early days. So any webdesigners, film-makers, journalists, creatives who want to help – please get in touch!

Read more about the origins of the campaign here (article on Guardian website by campaign founder Ken Burnett): 

Use responsibly

Three ads from Forum Invest / Eco Romania which don’t need much explanation.

Copy ad above:
Collecting unselected waste
Can be fatal to you
Use responsibly!

(thanks Constantin from oitzarisme for the translation)

The Story of Cap & Trade

Remember The Story of Stuff, the very successful viral about our production and consumption patterns? The follow-up just arrived: The Story of Cap & Trade.

The Story of Cap & Trade is the first in a series of six short films the Story of Stuff Project is releasing over the coming year with Free Range Studios and more than a dozen of the world’s leading sustainability organizations.
The Story of Cap & Trade takes a provocative but humorous look at cap and trade, the leading climate solution under consideration in Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill. Employing the same urgent honesty that made The Story of Stuff so successful—and flash animation that makes it clear who wins and who loses—The Story of Cap & Trade points to the ‘devils in the details’ in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake carbon offsets and, most importantly, distraction from the significant tasks at hand in tackling the climate crisis.

“The Story of Cap & Trade helps viewers understand what’s on offer from world leaders and argues that we can and must do better,” said Annie Leonard, Director of the Story of Stuff Project. “We’re releasing the film now, in the run-up to Copenhagen, to ensure that Americans and others clearly understand the solutions on the table and to inspire them to push our leaders for real solutions to climate change.”

37 ways for a better world

Overview of 37 innovation principles and inspiring examples for a better world. Made by Marc Heleven from New shoes today, a ídea factory based in Belgium.

New shoes today is a growing number of soulmates in business who give support to people and organisations on their road to creation, innovation and change. Together with clients they take on 21st century challenges. Their values: open - drive - unity - fun - care - today.

The transcript of the slideshare presentation with all links can be found here.

Postcards Pose Tough Questions

The Ask Yourself campaign from Dropping Knowledge is a series of over 100 digital postcards which promote dialogue on social themes of global significance. Answers can be added as comments by clicking on the postcards and each card can be shared through dragging and dropping into emails. Registered users are encouraged to pose questions as well. See more below.

Q&A at its best: participatory, provocative and pertinent.

Newspaper to New Paper

Scooping up a D&AD Yellow Pencil in this months awards is the brilliant Newspaper to New Paper project from Dentsu, Tokyo. We applaud D&AD acknowledging the great worth of this humble project. Although it was responding to a brief from a commercial client project we think it qualifies as social advertising. Read the entry rationale to see why >>

eFTe: people, thinking, acting and everyday consumer choices

Video above: “Save energy for the future / Oszczędzaj energię na przyszłość”

Six gorgeous videos from Poland from eFTe, each one about a different issue, all related to ethical consumption. They were created by young Polish artists on eFTe demand, financed by a grant from the Polish MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), in frame of their global education program. Among others, they are shown before the screenings for school kids in frame of a cinema education program, in a number of cinemas all around Poland.

The name “eFTe” was created in relation to Fair Trade, but they do much more that just promote Fair Trade now and the name “efte” started to be a name of its own kind. It’s not an acronym - it’s just the name of the group.
eFTe is a group of people that think and act for ethical consumption. They are not experts, but they try to learn about the consequences of choices as consumers and want to share this knowledge. eFTe is people, thinking, acting and everyday consumer choices.