Pitch
The industrial era is over, the ideal man of 1920's consumer should draw to a close, with a new role-model created for a new century.
Description
Summary
The industrial era created a cast of leaders which every boy is supposed to idealize and emulate, the consumer. The ideal future for the consumer is owning a big (energy inefficient) house and driving a fast (fuel wasting) car.
In the post-industrial era there doesn't exist a cast of leaders for the new environmental dangers we face. So, it's socially awkward for pre-teens to share these are the goals with your friends and parents.
During the hormonal teenage years, there isn't an ecological alternative to the male jock stereotype of driving big trucks and muscle cars.
In small communities and church groups, it isn't respectable to live an ecologically friendly lifestyle.
Television and movies are the primary media which communicates American values, but looking at the screen, the industrial era leader is in every television show and movie.
Can an ecologically viable and socially acceptable leaders be added to the cast of television and movie characters? Can there be a socially acceptable and ecologically friendly lifestyle?
Category of the action
Changing public perceptions on climate change
What actions do you propose?
A series of ecologically viable characters are to be inserted into mainstream media. This can be the small organic farmer, the urban gardener, the smart car driver, or someone who composts or recycles.
Cities where movies and television shows are filmed, like Hollywood, can add a tax to movies and tv shows which do not include a minor character of this character type.
A small monetary incentive can be added for B-Movies to include these characters in the scripts, the characters are less innocuous than product placements, so they should be less expensive.
Hollywood scriptwriters should be informed of the importance of this stereotype via a guild newsletters, blogs and forums. The prime targets will be late night television, children's shows, soap operas and sitcoms, where there is lots of turnover, these writers should be the most informed on this subject.
Who will take these actions?
People who are highly experienced in grassroots organizing and communicating with these groups, will be hired to organize the media campaign, they will have a staff of writers, publishers and media people.
Ecological organizations will be targeted in Hollywood and surrounding cities, it will organize citizens to push this agenda on their city council with the goal of moving this toward a city ordinance.
The outcomes of this push should be measured via a survey issued to students. This can be included in standard testing which the state or county uses to evaluate the performance of their schools.
Where will these actions be taken?
The campaign will begin on the internet. There can be meetups. There can be staff and a campaign HQ.
How much will emissions be reduced or sequestered vs. business as usual levels?
This will try to shift behavior on a national level, so small changes in behavior will be multiplied by the entire population of the country.
What are other key benefits?
It creates the opportunity for more ecologically friendly scripts, plots and story lines to develop in mainstream media.
What are the proposal’s costs?
This campaign can hire the highest skilled individuals in the country, or it could be crowdsourced with a toolset as brilliant as wikipedia.
Time line
One to five years. This cause needs to be grassroots and it needs to find champions for the cause, so it will take time for it to develop into a cohesive movement.
Related proposals
References
People create narratives for themselves, this likely begins somewhere around 12 years old.
Grover Norquist began in politics at the age of 12:
http://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-grover-norquist-pledge-signers-list-fiscal-cliff-republicans-tax-2012-11?op=1
I am trying to work with the psychological theory of "Narrative Identity": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_identity
The idea is that an ecologicially friendly "Narrative Identity" does not exist in mainstream culture, so many will be created and inserted.
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