Superbowl Ads

In the posts Another Clunky Sentence and Climate Scientists: Ready to Strike we critiqued the IPCC and the scientific community for failing to communicate the urgency of their findings to the general public.

The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has just released yet another alarming report as to the dire state of the climate. Yet, once more, the public has failed to respond to its message. Indeed, the vast majority of people do not even know that the report was published, or even what the IPCC is. Given the extraordinary importance of their message, it is hard to manage a problem more critical than the ability to communicate their findings to society at large.

The solution to this dilemma may be right in front of us, on our television screens. Just two weeks after the publication of the IPCC report the manufacturers of automobiles advertised their latest electric vehicles (EVs) during the Superbowl. (The Superbowl is the most-watched sports event in the U.S.) It looks as if these companies have had considerable success. Orders for electric trucks and cars are brisk.

Lessons we learn from this success are (1) automobile companies build vehicles that people want to drive, and (2) those same companies are good at marketing. Contrast this success with the roll out of the IPCC report. In that case (1) no one wants to read their report, and (2) the IPCC and the scientists have done a very poor job of marketing.

This observation suggests, once more, that business and industry are providing better climate leadership than governments and international agencies.