Hasta La Creative!

Environmental debates are touchy, and often noticeably lacking in nuanced dialogue. Interesting, then, that The Nature Conservancy, which says it's committed to taking a creative and balanced approach to solving environmental issues, would frame its latest ads as the opposite of that. Portland, Maine, ad agency Kemp Goldberg Partners recently rolled out ads for the group in Boston that ask people what the "future of nature" will be—in each case, prompting them to choose between two apparently incompatible options. Loggers or forests? People or wildlife? Fishermen or fish? Ecology or economy? The campaign points to a landing page, futureofnature.org, where visitors learn that, in fact, they might not have to choose at all—that a healthy economy and a healthy natural world might both be possible. The "Tastes great, less filling" approach of the ads is a provocative one when the subject isn't beer but rather the future of the planet—though it will surely draw people into the conversation. And the audience's brief trip from black and white into gray mirrors the larger one this client hopes the population at large will eventually take, too. More images below.