WOOLLEY: AUSTRALIAN TV ADS PRODUCE UP TO 57 TONNES OF CO2 PER HOUR
30 second ad breaks during programmes such as the Biggest Loser, So You Think You Can Dance, Big Brother, Border Security and the 6pm News are causing massive carbon consequences according to TrinityP3, Australia’s leading independent marketing communications management consultants who have conducted an in-depth environmental audit on the advertising and marketing sector.
“Companies claiming carbon neutrality should ensure they also include the impact of their marketing and advertising initiatives, which produce significant carbon emissions, to avoid any accusation of Greenwashing,” said Darren Woolley (pictured), managing director of TrinityP3.
“TrinityP3 is currently formalising a standard carbon footprint measurement of advertising. This is the first measurement on the impact of advertisements in the world and we will be speaking on our methodology at an international conference in Boston in October.
“Most companies have been obliged to think through their strategies on reducing carbon emissions and they need to remember that their marketing strategies do have an environmental impact that needs to be included. This is not something that is easily able to be measured.
“Reality Television is interesting as the more viewers and voters that tune in, the higher the carbon footprint. The more people vote, the more it adds tothe CO2 in the atmosphere.
“When Big Brother launched in Australia in 2001, advertising in the program contributed over 1200kg of CO2 into the environment. By series eight this year, the decreasing number of viewers decreased its carbon footprint by 50%.
“However, the Biggest Loser is the biggest loser on the environment with a massive 57 tonnes of CO2 per hour produced by the advertising that ran during the final.”
To assess the current environmental impact your marketing and advertising activities hold visit www.trinityP3.com.au
80 Comments
Oh good grief. Hope he’s measuring the effect of the hot air coming out of his office.
I’d like Darren to measure the collective carbon emission from the Australian advertising industry’s gasps of annoyance caused by his self-congratulatory, self serving and self-promoting pressers being posted on the CB blog.
99% of non essential carbon emissions are caused by people crapping on about carbon emissions.
Campaign to stop global warming by not talking about it!
Dear Research company,
Can you please look into the amount of CO2 emissions that talking in and around our office may produce please? We would like to see if we can contribute to a carbon credits offset scheme. We can salary sacrifice from our employees, I’m sure they’ll be into it and more than willing to help mother earth.
We think if we can reduce our talking by about 20% each year, we can really do our bit and help the environment…….
Yeah and what was the carbon footprint of writing that ridiculous study and the equally ridiculous PR?
Darren I hope you drive a hybrid. But for some reason I doubt this is the case.
ps – you need a new pic – this one is getting really old really quickly due to the high level of pointless press releases coming from your office
so, i suppose he’s using personally recycled paper and a home made charcoal pencil to do his sums? is he calculating how much the earth dies due to us reading his report?
Darren, how is your entourage getting to the conference in Boston?
Dear Woolley,
Does this include everything from paper, gasbagging in meetings, gasbagging to clients, phone calls, driving the porsche to and from the office, production crew buying an orange juice on the shoot and the emissions that went into the manufacture, transport and refridgeration of that orange juice right up to the emissions from the tv sets on the show or is it just the tv sets?
I come up with my ideas in a bath made of strawberry jelly, should I pay an excess for that? What about the methane emissions when I’m conceptualising in the office jakes? If the idea comes slightly after the emission, does that emission count because I still billed it out?
Sincerely,
Emission boy.
If P3 did not exist, how much Co2 would that save?
lynchy, can we fuck this guy and his press releases off the blog?
p3 has nothing to do with creativity. it’s the opposite in fact.
this company has deadset got to be one of the most useless ever to crawl out of this business…what a fucking waster of office space
I might be wrong, but isn’t that a cotton shirt he’s wearing? That’s causing our massive water waste and drought?
Listen up!
I agree with Darren entirely. There’s far too much process and energy spent on getting a commercial to air. Client briefings, travel time, paper, the amount of power required to generate graphics and time in edit suits, the poor tasting coffee in agency meetings. We need to find smarter, more effective ways to simplify the process.
And there is a great way for clients to reduce the amount of energy, travel time, paper, and other related forms of waste with regard to the production of TVC’s. Simply remove as many links in the chain of getting an ad to air.
All you need to do is thank Darren politely for his proposal but in the interest of reducing the amount of energy spent in the process, kindly say no to his services. Services which truly are an extravagance in this day and age of environmental negligence.
Thank you Darren for making us all so aware of the need to be ever mindful of any unnecessary steps in the process that only add to the problem.
Yours kindly,
Mother Earth
I had to check the date, I could have sworn it was 1st April when I read that!
Yeah Lynchy, get rid of P3! They’re the fucking enemy of fun and creativity.
Let’s cut the middle men out I agree.
I was going to write something clever and well-reasoned.
How does this sound instead?
FUCK OFF!!!
Did I get my dates mixed up….is it April 1st?
So this is where all your Trinity P3 money is going Mr. Client! Wow.
Suck my carbon rod, Woolley.
This guy is a former agency creative.
Here’s to Trivial/P3 Neutrality!
If Al Gore had’ve come up with same figures you’d all be saying what a genius he is.
I really wanna fight this guy!
oh, for god’s sake! this press release canNOT be SERIOUS! (throws racquet down and stomps off)
Lynchy are you helping this guy prod creatives with a stick to see who snaps just for a laugh or did you pluck this press release from somewhere else because you think he’s a twat?
The ads he used to write were as notable as his press releases.
Funniest thing I’ve ever read on this blog!!
Holy fuck. I’m handing in my resignation today.
I bet they all drive 4WDs and flies a lot …
haha from another source here’s how he does it:
‘TrinityP3 managing director Darren Woolley said emissions are calculated by measuring a broadcasters’ power consumption and that of a consumer watching an ad on television in their home.
We look at the number of households and the number of TVs, and then the proportion of TVs that are plasma, LCD or traditional, and calculate energy consumption based on those factors,” Woolley said.’
groundbreaking shit – they know how to estimate!
Gimme a fucking break. All P3 does is scare clients into thinking the agency they employed is ripping them off along with the production company employed to make the ad. Don’t gimme this holier than though shit. Fucking douche bags.
The hypocrisy of P3 makes me sick!
How many of these polluting TVCs have they been involved in since the company was founded?
Hundreds? Thousands?
Have you heard of carbon capture technology?
Why don’t you start by sucking a fart out of my arse!
he’s into measuring things because he tried to be a creative, and ended up hating agency creatives as a result.
shit. what did we do to deserve this guy?
It’s just REVENGE…
P3 make Monty look good ?
It’s Monty’s fault.
Unbefuckinglievable.
he’s allowed on this blog because it will be controversial thereby creating more comments, more hits, and making this blog more sell-able down the road.
The only reason television exists is because of advertising. So… If there were no advertisers there would be no television. So are we entirely to blame then?
Anyone that starts a blog with `”listen up” deserves a good slap.
Fuck P3 and the high ground you pranced in on.
Mother Earth eh, only in Sydney.
What a green-wash bandwagon concept. Here is the thing P3: STOP GETTING CONSUMERS TO BUY WHAT THEY DON’T NEED – don’t think your clients are going to love that eh?
4.16 if Al Gore came up with this – we would all be calling him a fucking hypocrite just like he was proven to be and just like we’re calling P3.
While we’re at it why don’t we measure the carbon footprint of the Salvation Army, Greenpeace and Amnesty International and just for fun why don’t we count how many arseholes people have….
Pointless twaddle…..
Lets hope clients don’t read this and think P3 are smarter because of it…what they should really do is think about their business, their people and what they want from an agency, then ring one and listen to what they have to say…
What’s the carbon footprint of that?
About time someone P3’d P3.
Why doesn’t he go back to copywriting? Oh that’s right, he can’t, he’s well and truly burnt the bridges with agencies.
What if the TVC is for the Prius or the black balloons spot? How does the genius factor that in?
I LOVE THIS GUY!!!
Look, this guy’s company is tiny. This is probably the best thing he’s ever done as a creative. The PR this ‘ludicrous’ study will generate will be enormous. If the marketing community didn’t know of Trinity P3 before they certainly will now. This isn’t baby stuff. Why do you suppose they’ve probably spent a small fortune on commissioning this study? (It will generate more exposure and talk than any ad would. The clients will react this this just as much as the creative community. His point (and it may be a valid one) is that companies that are promoting ‘carbon neutral’ shouldn’t use TV (he shouldn’t be stopping at TV) or they will be ‘green washing’ (Bullshitting the consumer)
Come on people he’s using the media to promote the company.
I feel dirty having now visted their website for the first time. It looks like an inferior cover of a Penguin Book. Dags, if you’re going to fire out turgid pressers like this, I suggest you send one of the gophers out to take a new website photo of your Sydney office. The ageing gas guzzling 4WD out the front looks out of place. Perhaps you can put your Porsche in the pic this time…
So who has to offset this mass of emission?
a) the broadcaster?
b) the viewer?
c) the creative team behind the ad?
d) the end client?
e) all of the above?
If anybody is interested in offsetting theur emissions NOW for their production they can do so through the Rozelle Protocol at rozelleprotocol.com.au
Caravan Pictures, Exit Films, Good Oil, Film Graphics signed up to it over 12 months ago. Carbon credits are supplied by Carbon Planet and Carbon Friendly.
Companies such as NRMA, 3 and Officeworks have already started offsetting their commercial productions.
Perhaps someone could create something for DM, press, outdoor and digital because I’m not currently aware of an existing scheme for these channels.
That would perhaps be a first.
http://www.rozelleprotocol.com.au/
Since the whole green bandwagon is opposed to private enterprise (indeed, they pine for soviet style control of our lives) it’s hardly surprising that advertising would be on their list of planet killers that need to be brought into line.
The poor buggers are obviously getting upset that there hasn’t been any increase in global temperatures for a decade or so, so they’re getting a bit frantic now, desperately trying to bring forward their new world order before the whole thing goes away.
11:18, I think you’ll find the green bandwagon is encouraged by private enterprise. Everyone has to get a new ‘green’ fridge now and throw the old one out in to landfill.
It pays to think a bit deeper sometimes. Did Al Gore get funding from any nuclear / alternative energy companies? What’s going to happen when we all need to buy electric cars?
$aving the environment one benjamin franklin at a time.
Private enterprise, as the title suggests, is about finding enterprising ways to make money.
If people want green, they’ll provide it – or a greenwashed version of it.
And if governments, like ours, introduce insane ETS programs, you can be sure some enterprising people will find a way to profit from it.
That doesn’t take away from the fact that most green warriors are actually watermelons – green on the outside, red on the inside. They’re not interested in saving the planet, they want to reshape it in their own insane image.
Communism collapses, a total failure, so this lot just rebrand the same old smelly product from red to green.
My name is Christopher Sewell. I work with Darren Woolley at TrinityP3 and am responsible for the methodology and calculations used in the PR release.
Interesting and emotive responses from all you ‘Anonymous’ writers.
If you think we are wrong to point out that our industry does have a role to play in understanding and reducing carbon that is your option so state it clearly.
While there is little data available on the impact advertising has on global warming it does play it’s part.
For instance 2% of all electricity used in the USA is used to run the servers at Google, Yahoo etc.
Electricity generation = CO2.
it is not about going on-line instead of printing. It is more complicated than that.
And that is the point of the PR release. Every decision made by an advertiser on where to promote their goods and services has a different carbon effect. TV is about consumption of your commercials at home.
If you have a problem with us having the audacity to suggest that advertisers should be aware of these carbon emissions created by their choice of media so be it.
It is a important debate so join it. Don’t hide and throw rocks.
Understand and do the best you can. Carbon should be another factor in the choice of media.
And by the way it is not about measure and offsetting. It is about measurement and long term reduction strategies.
Christopher Sewell
TrinityP3
NO MORE TAX !
Monty ?
With respect Chris, the point of the pr release is to garner publicity for P3.
I’m sure as the person who was made responsible for doing all the grunt work, you’d like to believe there are more altruistic motives behind it.
But take it from a bunch of people who earn a living creating and managing perceptions… this is a publicity stunt for a brand hungry to grow, with just enough science to justify its existence.
Have another read of the PR release and see if it doesn’t attempt to promote Darren, the P3 brand, and drive traffic to the P3 website.
I don’t know if you’re aware, but you’re working for Darren Woolley, not Tim Flannery.
Chris –
I take it you will be making steps to change the P3 website from orange to black. It will mean less energy required for it to be displayed on peoples monitors.
Refer http://www.blackle.com
Get over yourself Chris – carbon is a P3 invoicing opportunity.
Oh dear.
Another holier than thou planet saver.
God, I’m getting sick of it.
Especially when the science of made-made global warming keeps getting torn apart by new evidence.
There seem to be a lot of little dick Hummer drivers in the room. Your arrogance and ignorance is astonishing.
How much carbon did those Westpac ads waffling on about every generation etc produce?
Can you send them a bill Chris?
Mark it courtesy of my sperm.
Ta.
The criticism of what P3 are doing seems to be derived from a feeling that they’re doing a bit of cynical bandwagoning, hitching a ride on the whole carbon emission thing.
I see it a bit differently.
I think they have recognised that a lot of businesses either haven’t considered that there might be a carbon emission implication in their marketing output, or if they have realised, need a way of measuring it.
Obviously, P3 are happy to point out what most marketers haven’t got their heads around and provide some figures.
Sure it’s a trendy issue, but these are the times we live in. Personally, I don’t subscribe to the idea of altering my lifestyle and think it’s up to the big polluters to pick up their game. My Plasma/sound system has 14 little LED’s glowing permanently, I drive two gas-guzzling classic cars and I shower for as long as I like, including shaving and brushing my teeth.
But hey, if there’s a quid to be made helping marketers not appear either totally ignorant or hypocritical about the hottest issue of our time, surely we don’t begrudge someone from being first in. It’s business.
And like the creative evaluation business I started a few months ago, it’s only a response to a situation the ad industry has itself to blame for through its own stupidity.
But that’s only my opinion.
Monty
Let me get this right… so the ABC, with no ads, is responsible for less carbon use than commercial stations?
Even their high rating shows?
If we take all the ads off TV, no matter how good the programs, we’re going to use less carbon?
This is insane stuff.
These people are idiots.
Monty,
I think the problem most people have with this press release is that it came from P3. We already struggle enough to get any sort of interesting thinking up: there are more layers in our business than you’ll find in a geology text.
Organisations like P3 just add another layer.
And while YOU blame the ad industry for the existence of people like P3 and yourself, I think it’s obvious that the real reason you/they exist is because marketing executives in Australia are poorly educated, poorly trained and on the whole, lacking in both intellect and insight.
The number of really high quality marketers in Australia, shit… you could count them on one hand.
I know what P3 do, and I think I have a fair idea what you do. And in both instances, it’s covering for our clients lack of experience, judgement, and intelligence.
Not ours.
We did it at our agency internally.
We just didn’t crap on about it.
It’s like someone telling you they give food to homeless people – the mouth spoils the act.
To me, focusing on the specific environmental consequences of advertising totally ignores the bigger picture, which is advertising’s role in creating an insatiable demand for products that is raping the planet.
To the extent that marketers start trying to make environmentally sustainable ads, they are merely providing themselves with the smallest fig leaf imaginable.
We are all guilty.
Now, where’s that brief?
Now, a big polluting energy company can calculate how much carbon they pump into the environment as they run an ad trying to convince us they have added .3% green power.
Hey Monty, it’s not about you.
Oh Christ, is this industry really so full of morons?
Yeah, let’s stop advertising. Let’s shut down the entire private enterprise system. Throw out democracy at the same time. Let’s chuck the lot.
Worked wonders in the Soviet Union.
How did Earth Hour fair? All those ads telling us to turn our lights off for one hour on one day of the year.
That’s right, 11:37, it’s about you.
It is now, 1:22
Like I said. If Al Gore had’ve said the same thing at his Cannes lecture last year the whole audience would’ve rushed to the stage door to get his autograph. I call that an inconvenient truth.
12:03 – who funds Al Gore?
I don’t think he’s doing this furfree.
Al Gore?
A court recently ruled in England that his doco couldn’t be shown to schoolkids without correcting a range of errors and blatant twisting of facts.
An Inconvenient Truth has turned out to be a pack of lies.
He changed nothing – but he still has people (franchisees, really) delivering his discredited spiel around the globe.
Meanwhile Big Al, who uses more carbon in his own home than 20 other US household, buys carbon credits – from a company he part owns.
He wins on the swings and roundabouts, and people still haven’t seen through him.
They paid a fortune to get Gore to turn up at Cannes.
The guy has a real eye for a dollar.
Trendsurfing, green washing leeches.
It’s a pity clients think this is credible…..but whose fault is that????
These guys are too busy with stuff like this to come out with anything of value to the industry – clients included. Hence, yet another pile of steaming turds. Maybe they should check their own emissions.