Things are looking up down under

I have to say it: Australia is rapidly moving up in my estimations. The nation that brought us Neighbours has accomplished some amazing things in the past 2 months--and I for one am impressed!

Back in December, the new PM Kevin Rudd announced his first task in office would be to ratify Kyoto; signalling a major shift in the geopolitical landscape of climate change. Granted, this symbolic gesture was not followed up with bold action--the Australian delegation to the UN climate negotiations in Bali was eerily silent throughout the conference's 2 week duration. In fairness though, the new administration only had about 3 weeks to prepare.

Then yesterday, the PM made an official apology to the “Stolen Generations”, victims of a government policy from 1910 to 1970 that took mixed-race children--mostly of Aboriginal mothers and European fathers--to orphanages, church missions or foster homes to be raised separately from their families and culture. Many claim the ultimate purpose was the extinction of Aborigines as a distinct race. It is unbelievable to think that such a policy operated in a democratic country until 1970. The apology is well overdue, but kudos to Mr. Rudd I can think of few politicians who have the guts to apologies for the atrocities of governments past, or present. As Getup! said in their recent email: “one small word; one giant leap forward”. I couldn’t agree more.

So that’s two enormous gold stars for Australia. Yet, there’s something else that inspired me to sing Australia’s praises, something that will probably go unnoticed in the rest of the world.

On recent trip to Oz I noticed an advert for Cooper’s beer (see image). Many companies are currently jumping on the green marketing bandwagon. Yet to date, climate conscious marketing tends to be either exclusive or head bashing; not targeting the masses, or activities thereof. What struck me about this ad was its simple and wholesome message--walking to the pub and drinking domestic beer not only reduces emissions; but decreases drink driving incidents, offsets extra calories from those couple of beers, and supports the domestic beer industry (**note: this is more appealing in a country like Australia that actually has good domestic beers).

Now, I don't think I would be going out on a limb to suggest that beer swigging males represent a pretty large section of society and that they are also a pretty carbon-intensive bunch. Simple advertising like this serves as a reminder to the climate movement that we needn't over complicate messaging. The best way to tackle this problem is to engage the masses with messages that have a point of common resonance, and what could be more homogeneous than beer? I’d love to see the numbers, but I suspect that a worldwide Ad campaign encouraging beer drinkers to walk to the pub and drink domestic brews, would result in a measurable emissions reductions.I'm not saying that we can avert a climate nightmare by drinking, but that mainstream marketing has to be the next step in public mobilisation. It's a lesson that Greenpeace seems to agree with and Cooper's has so effectively demonstrated.

So Australia, in two months you have re-joined global efforts to tackle climate change and apologised for the human rights abuses you inflicted upon your indigenous people. You have showed the world that political will and socially creative marketing can be a positive force for change and for that, I will raise my next pint to you.