We all know about the advertisement awards for most novel and impactful commercials. However, I am unaware of any award recognition for Bad-ad of the year. That would be strange considering there are a zillion to choose from. Perhaps we are the first to do so.

This ad struck me deep. Many ads strike me, for better or worse- as that is perhaps the main function of advertisements: catch your attention. You see ads, like art and music, ride the lines of acceptance. Ironically, even ads that cross the line and become sanctioned, increase their bottom line.

Yet, we know when an ad or art has crossed the line.

A prime example of this is witnessed after travesties and calamities. One of the greatest large scale travesties of late is ‘nine-eleven’ of course. Do you remember the tension in discussing the issue? Do you recall the journalist who was penalized for saying “that’s so September 10th”? He cracked this joke way too early for public acceptance. I remember riding the line myself- I was appalled by a phenomenon that I read in a newspaper within a week of the crashes. I did some research and the shock sparked a poem that I began performing publicly. People seemed quite positively impacted by it. It's called america.com, and you can read it here.

Really, not much is sacred in the advertisement world. Sex has been sucked dry. Shock and Violence is all the rage. And all cultures and people are subject to exploitation and ridicule. Not much is sacred.

I witness these ads with disgust, but they usually don’t hit me as deep as this one. This one cut, because you just don’t fuck with climate change. That is way too personal.

You see I work with children and youth. And when I explore the future, goals, plans, visions- I hear from at least two of them a month: “If we make it that far.” I’ve heard this sentiment for many years now. I’ve called it Environmental Angst- that wrenching feeling of dread that we are killing our planet that birthed us, and subsequently ourselves. You know the feeling. It’s one thing for myself to feel this pain, but a child. My heart weeps.

Yet an ad such as this isn’t new. About two Merry Consumptions ago I saw a poster outside a junky fashion-of-the-week trinket shop: a ‘sexy-girl’ with the tagline: “Global Warming”. I returned a few days later to liberate the ad for my evidence-of-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it collection, but it was gone.

Perhaps, we’ve already reached that point were general society is not surprised that this ad campaign was spread from bus shelter to bus shelter, clear across town (advertising to car drivers no less).

So here it is: My pick for Bad-ad of 2006, or perhaps the millennium

click to see full ad