MTV Switch

Last year the June issue of The Reel was green – both in the environmental and colour sense – and the inspiration behind this ‘greenness’ was the inaugural MTV Switch campaign. The first six slots in the issue were filled with some top-notch creative urging ‘the kids’ to make lifestyle choices which help reduce the carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. Amongst the agencies and production companies involved were 180 Amsterdam, Cake and Element, and, along with Selmore and ecopop and collaborating parties, they’ve created another batch of multi-platform public service announcements and shorts for the return of the leading eco-initiative.

MTV Switch is special because the agencies, production companies and collaborators involved produce a high standard of work for no financial reward whatsoever. The unique coming together of creative talent to make a positive impact is something much appreciated by John Jackson, Director of Social Responsibility, MTV International, who said, ‘We are incredibly thrilled and honoured to work with such forward-thinking international creative agencies in producing compelling work to continue to engage youth on this extremely important global issue.’

But what do the companies get out of having their creative juices squeezed into a tall refreshing glass of pure freeness?! Peter Albores, Copywriter on 180 Amsterdam’s ‘Real Life’ spots tried to explain, ‘It's hard work... advertising. Sometimes you write things you don't like writing. Make images you don't like making. Talk to people who you don't like talking to. Sometimes all it takes for you to compromise every moral, ethical and intellectual fibre in your body is moderately priced designer furnishings. But then sometimes you get to do work for MTV. This makes it all better.’

Albores may have enjoyed working on the ‘Real Life’ spots but from the pieces to come out of 180 Amsterdam, and all the outstanding work that has been created this year, the ‘Green Song’ video particularly stands out. Lyrics like, ‘It doesn’t really matter what it is, or what it does, or why it stinks or what it means as long as it is green’ target the recent explosion in false or exaggerated green claims in the practice commonly known as green-washing. Hal Kirkland, creative on ‘Green Song’, learnt a lot about the shady ‘green’ claims that are bandied about by corporations and governments and was astounded by what he and his team unearthed in the course of researching for the project, ‘We did quite a bit of research and it was pretty eye-opening what we uncovered. Once we were introduced to the concept of green-washing, it didn't take long to see pages and pages of fairly damning information about what's really happening out there. The fact that some companies are putting more money into pretending they are green than into projects that legitimately help the environment was pretty astounding. Especially when you saw exactly how much they were spending.’

If you’re going to preach about helping the environment then you had better make sure you know what you’re talking about. The team at 180 Amsterdam were aware of the pitfalls of being so closely associated with MTV Switch and did their research accordingly – narrowly avoiding an awkward faux pas, Kirkland continues, ‘Prior to writing the Green Song we had just finished a campaign that involved the use of candles. We really liked it and we thought we had a pretty interesting perspective until a little research revealed that most candles aren't actually green at all. The way they're made, what they're made from and how they're distributed made light bulbs seem comparatively organic.’ Despite the near miss, the research and work that has gone into the film has paid off, with the film being lauded on uber green website treehugger.com and on the web pages of the Media Guardian…and now here.



A round of applause to those involved for providing their services free of charge and still producing such high quality work - sentiments echoed by 180's Producer on the project Sandy Durham, who must have worked harder than anyone, 'We are thrilled to participate once again in the MTV Switch initiative. It's a great cause and we had a lot of fun working on all three films. Whether it's reminding kids that sometimes life outside is better than life inside or making green washing an issue worth talking about. However, the real credit goes to all our production partners who offered endless hours of labour on this pro-bono project: Yellow House, Rokkit, Deli Pictures, Peppermelon, Sizzer, Kaiser Sound, Massive Music and Glassworks.'

All of the executions for this year’s Switch are available to view at mtvswitch.org. We’re going to turn our lights off now.