Public sentiment for the use of wind energy had been slipping nationally, mostly based on a lot of mistruths and rumours. The debate had been squarely shifted in to an emotive space where individual, token stories had overtaken facts both about wind energy and our need to invest in renewable energy. The challenge was to realign the debate in to an area that encouraged fact based discussion.
We choose to make this a national issue that considered the greater good of everyone in the country, thus getting upstream of the ‘not in my back yard’ problem. To do so, we leveraged a speech made by JFK to the joint house of the Oireachtas in 1963, just a few months before his tragic assassination. In it he spoke of how Ireland had always punched above its weight on an international level in many different disciplines. The implication was that now we had that opportunity once more, to show the world how a small nation can show international leadership in the adoption of renewable energy resources. The speech was teamed with the beautiful photography of Alex Teller and a swelling score by Emmet Cooke.
The 3 minute and 15 second piece proved to be very powerful in cinema. The debate about wind energy in Ireland has been changed and become an issue of national interest.
