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 took a very simple and salient fact, dramatising it for a radio commercial. 85% of Ireland’s energy need are met through energy imports. This is an unsustainable level of reliance on circumstances beyond out control, especially given the volatility of the energy markets. In this commercial we give short synopsis of these facts, but chose to do so with 85% of the spot delivered in foreign accents, with only the last 15% delivered by a citizen of this country. This was a clear metaphor for our reliance on others for our energy needs.
All the foreign narrators were sourced on the internet and recorded remotely as to ensure their authenticity. The commercial also uses sound effects to move through the noisy and dirtier fossil fuels to the cleaner use of renewable energy.
