Book-Cut Storytelling: Environment

UAE Ecological Footprint

A while ago I posted about the “Textual Landscapes” of Book-Cut Storytelling, and I found another well-executed example.

This EWS/World Wildlife Fund commercial for the UAE is nicely done, but it lacks storytelling:

Emirates Wildlife Society/World Wildlife Fund—UAE Ecological Footprint

(Note: I originally also provided a link to the Arabic language version on YouTube, but that clip was taken down.)

The WWF won’t tell which advertising agency made this clip but sez:

Using simple newspaper models (recycled, of course!), our team has produced a short animation, that takes a quick look at these choices, and how they affect our Ecological Footprint. Starting from today, lets think twice before getting in our cars, or buying our favourite foods, and imagine the environmental cost of these luxuries that we take for granted, and maybe, we can look at other, more sustainable choices.

It’s nicely done. But the storytelling is sketchy, to say the least, and I don’t fully enjoy the residual stereotyping. Even if—which I assume—it is the way it is. If you break this clip down, all that remains is: this is what you do; this is what will happen; this is what you should do. I’m not entirely convinced that this has a lasting effect. Because, say, how many people do you know who don’t know that it is bad for you to smoke cigarettes, or that it is bad for the environment to go grocery shopping with your SUV?

Most of the time, it’s not the advice that sticks, it’s the story that goes with it. WWF, you can do better than that.

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Tagged as: creating worlds, form & technique