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Wednesday, April 26, 2017

The American Bird Conservancy's Marketing and Advertising: Ad's that work



    In this article I will review the following advertisement designed by The American Bird Conservancy and how it successfully created a call to action; asking readers to sign a petition.
The American Bird Conservancy seeks to draw awareness to the issues that threaten the lives of birds. In this particular case, they have chosen to emphasize the threat of wind turbines which have been identified as a cause of death for birds. At the bottom of the advertisement they use straight forward text to inform us of the expectation that causalities will escalate into millions as we approach the year 2030 if those who host wind turbines are not careful as to where they place them, avoiding placement on migratory pathways. The overall design of this advertisement is to recruit people to take action by going to the American Bird Conservancy’s website to sign a petition which asks for federal regulation against the placement of wind turbines on known migratory bird routes and dis-allowing wind turbines to be located within fifty feet of each other.

The focal point of the imagery used in this advertisement says, “I can’t make it home alive”, which is represented by an artistic image of a blue colored bird named “Jack”, that stands out in front of a cluster of wind turbines which looks like a “mine field” of unavoidable deadly threats.  The problem is that the wind turbines featured in the ad, have no visual path between them where “Jack” could fly safely, which strongly conveys certain death for birds like “Jack”.  Because this imagery is so successful in portraying the demise of birds, the American Bird Conservancy must also use text to support their belief that wind energy is a good alternative to conventional energy production.  The conservancy accomplishes this by heading up the advertisement with the words “Make wind power bird-smart”, and follows up with the central image of “Jack”, the bird, by placing text at the bottom of the advertisement that says, “But Jack is a friend of wind power”, which conveys the idea that birds are also benefitting by the positive environmental alternative of wind energy production. Additionally, their mission to address the spatial placement of wind turbines is effectively communicated through the density of wind turbines artistically drawn close together in this ad. This illustrates that wind turbine hosts need to be careful about how they place wind turbines to minimize the negative impact on migratory birds, and allowing them to fly through as safely as possible by placing wind turbines more than fifty feet apart.

Overall the essence of giving birds a “voice” by anthropomorphizing a bird (Jack) in this advertisement, is successful in appealing to humans and supporting the American Bird Conservancy by signing a petition on their website.  This call to action is strategically placed at the bottom of the page after the proclamation conveying that wind power is good, but must be made as safe as possible for migrating birds. The statement “sign the petition at abcbirds.org and help Jack get back home”, indicates that the reader can help birds like “Jack” survive if they respond to the request to sign the petition.  The combination of personalizing a bird, drawing simple imagery of excessive wind turbines in a small space, and offering text that explains how a good thing (wind energy) needs to be carefully placed and considered to balance the needs of all in a biocentric way versus a careless anthropocentric way, that would otherwise cause excessive and unnecessary death for birds.  This advertisement is a fine example of the human desire to be more respectful of Earth and its inhabitance, while fulfilling our essential energy needs at the same time.  It illustrates our progress toward lessening our negative impacts on the planet as we gain more knowledge about how we can move forward in a more environmentally conscious way.  The American Bird Conservancies’ advertisement would lead the reader to believe that power to help birds lies within our willingness to take action, not only to support alternative energy, but to use and implement it wisely.
Written by: Kristy Medo