Greta Thunberg’s ad about settling Mars meets Don Draper
Greta Thunberg is either a pint-sized warrior for the environment or the most annoying teenager on the planet for her tireless advocacy for the mitigation of climate change. In her latest foray in service to that cause, Ms. Thunberg’s Fridays for Future campaign released a “satirical ad” that is said to slam the idea of exploring and settling Mars while climate change still threatens the Earth, according to Futurism. The ad dropped, not coincidentally, about the same day NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars.
The ad reads like something that Elon Musk’s SpaceX would put out soliciting candidates for a Mars colony. It touts the wonders of the Red Planet and what an adventure it might be to go and build a new life there. Only at the end does it mention that the “99 percent” who must remain on Earth must see to climate change lest the Earth be destroyed.
Now, everything I know about advertising stems from watching episodes of “Mad Men.” So I imagine Ms. Thunberg presenting this video to the denizens of Cooper Sterling Draper Price, the fictional ad agency that is the center of the TV show. At the end of the presentation, I imagine Don Draper, the complicated, central character of the series, leaning back, lighting another cigarette (much to Ms. Thunberg’s annoyance), and asking, “What message does this commercial impart?”
At this point, Peggy Olson, Draper’s young protégé, raises her hand and says, “It says that I really want to move to Mars.”
Peter Campbell, one of the other characters adds, “Yeah, the message is that living on Mars would be pretty cool.”
At this point, Thunberg interjects, “No, no, no, the point of the ad is that Mars is a frivolous enterprise so long as climate change threatens the Earth. We need to bend every effort to ending the use of fossil fuels and switching to renewable energy.”
“Yeah, but that is not what the ad says,” Draper responds. “It’s a big commercial for Mars colonists. The message about climate change is tacked on at the end and is so brief that most people will miss it. Let me clue you in on some of the realities of the advertising game. It’s about both words and images designed to elicit an emotional reaction. Your target audience has to feel in their guts that climate change is such a dire problem that it has to be fixed no matter what. Your ad does nothing to make people feel that.”
“But it is so obvious!” exclaims Thunberg. “We’ve got to fix climate change or we’re all going to die in ten or twelve years!”
“Our market research says the people don’t believe that,” Draper responds. “Not enough to make significant sacrifices. Also, space exploration is pretty popular in this country. You need to be very focused to try to move people to your point of view.”
“How much to retain your services, Mr. Draper?” Thunberg asks. “Fridays for the Future could raise the money.”
“That would present a problem,” says Draper. “A number of big oil and gas companies are clients of ours. It would be a conflict of interest.”
At this point, Roger Sterling, the white-haired senior partner, bestirs himself from an alcoholic daze and says, “Isn’t that Elon Musk fellow a client as well?”
“Yeah, but that’s the electric car company,” Draper responds.
At this point Greta Thunberg gets up and stomps off in a huff, slamming the office door behind her. She can hear the laughter as Don Draper pours everyone some expensive scotch and everyone starts to wonder where that person came from.
The point is that while Greta Thunberg, or at least her older handlers, has marketed her well as the voice of the environmentally-conscious younger generation, she has a lot to learn about the media and its use to impart memes and messages.
Mark Whittington, who writes frequently about space and politics, has published a political study of space exploration entitled Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? as well as The Moon, Mars and Beyond. He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner. He is published in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Hill, USA Today, the LA Times, and the Washington Post, among other venues.
