I will be giving a presentation in Michigan at the end of May on how to present the Peak Oil message in a way that doesn’t trigger the brains many neural defense reactions. The American advertising culture and the American mind are both fairly well developed and likewise hopelessly enmeshed. One of my biggest concerns is that the Peak Oil message (to put it bluntly) just isn’t sexy enough for mass appeal and a public that has been fed a steady diet of sexually stimulating messages will simply never digest the reality of oil depletion, let alone its consequences (wordiness doesn’t help, I know).
You have my praise and support,
Jacob on
May 15th, 2008 11:45 am
I’m a big supporter of decreasing our dependence on any oil, foreign or domestic! I came to this site hoping to learn more.
Now all of that is forgotten, and all I can do is fantasize about your hot bod behind the oil cans. Wanna go out sometime?
matthew on
May 16th, 2008 8:31 am
Kris,
On James H. Kuntsler’s cast i heard you say that you wanted to know how you could really reach people and, whereas, I admire your willingness to branch out from the standard route of presentation, in practical terms, I thought the blatant sex sell was entirely self-defeating. I found myself unable to listen to what you were saying; if the message is the point, the point was lost.
I know that its hard to reach people, about thirty seconds into it you can see their eyes gloss over- they’re not interested, they’re not listening. Quite frankly, i don’t think people are at present in a place where they can truly hear what we have to say, at least not on the “problem” side. However, i think people are very ready, though they may not understand why, to hear about the “solution” side. Any time i bring up urban gardening, public art projects, neighborhood rehabilitation, and other community-building activities people get really excited- they want to hear more, and what’s better, they want to get involved.
We may not be able to reach people with our pain, but we can certainly reach them with our passion- just stay focused on the positive stuff.
matthew
“Learn how to love like your life depends on it, because it does.”
-Michael Franti
jacques deBeaufort on
May 20th, 2008 1:09 am
I heard Kunstlers commentary on the Kunstler kast.
Funny.
I think as long as you get people’s attention that’s a good thing.
just dont go down the “hotforwords” route TOO much (see youtube)
It’s like in LA we have this weather girls who is so hot (Jackie Johnson) that you never remember what the weather is. Which I guess doesn’t really matter in LA because the weather’s always the same.
Pierre Cloutier on
May 25th, 2008 9:56 am
Ignore all the negative comments - this is a great idea!
There are a lot of people addressing the serious angles of the Peak Oil issue.
Your approach is a novel one, and will be a useful complement to the other ways of alerting the citizenry.
It’s refreshing to see a young person aware & committed.
Trevor on
June 1st, 2008 2:34 pm
Interesting… I have to admit that I was initially turned off by the idea (let’s be clear, as a 25 year old male, I was ‘intellectually’ turned off) but I’m warming up to the possibilities of this medium.
I came by peak oil via ‘The End of Suburbia’ and in particular JHK’s ear-catching social commentary. It’s occurred to me since that some people aren’t caught by the ear — they’re caught by the eye. I sense a certain degree of yin and yang between the two of you. JHK can grab people with clever turns of phrase while you eat up the stragglers with clever turns of [ahem!]. To put it differently, some people like bitter; some like sweet. I happen to be a bitter young(ish) enviro-nazi crank, but, ‘different strokes for different folks’ as they say.
Taking the example of ‘The Lonely Island’ guys, there’s no doubt that internet video and YouTube in particular have the ability to reach a lot of people…. even important ones (OK Lorne Michaels isn’t THAT important).
Anyways, one of these days, when I’m a little less worn out, I’d love to pitch some ideas your way … as well as some light-hearted criticism — don’t worry I’m a pussycat
Keep up the good work!
mlr on TOD
P.S. you mention the list of things made of petroleum in this video and I have to say when I was first looking into the issue I thought “bah! who needs it!” …. until I saw guitar strings on the list….. as a fellow musician (and cat owner) tell me you don’t cringe at the alternative.
JP Merzetti on
June 2nd, 2008 7:20 pm
Brilliant.
Laughably, I re-directed here from a Kunstlercast, and strangely -
I think he missed the most important part of your motif.
I would think that “naked ladies” outdraw just about any other topic on the web.
That makes your show a double-whammy, mammy.
Off that topic - grabbing any casual and probably non-aware response available,
you’ve put together a nice snappy intro to the subject.
Bravo!
auntiegrav on
June 6th, 2008 5:07 pm
Gotta admit: hard to pay attention at all to the words.;-)
I scrolled down to read the comments, and guess what? Someone was actually talking in the background! Imagine that.
Heard about you from the Kunstlercast, too.
Kevin Walsh: I was there, too. Comments about the conference and the world are at my blog.
Thanks for your contribution, even if I probably didn’t hear your presentation among the 50.
C. Wolf on
June 9th, 2008 4:42 pm
A great approach to attract those who would otherwise have little interest in your message; clear and concise, you blend your overall purpose into something that not only keeps the attention of the audience, but there is also attention paid to do such tastefully. I support you one hundred percent, and agree that Peak Oil is a topic that should be on the tip of the tongue of every global citizen, and applaud your effort in spreading awareness using means outside of the status quo.
(19 votes, average: 4.79 out of 5)
Loading …
Cheers from ASPO!
Wonderful way of selling the message! I love it!
Keep it up!
Reaching those who otherwise will not listen.
I will be giving a presentation in Michigan at the end of May on how to present the Peak Oil message in a way that doesn’t trigger the brains many neural defense reactions. The American advertising culture and the American mind are both fairly well developed and likewise hopelessly enmeshed. One of my biggest concerns is that the Peak Oil message (to put it bluntly) just isn’t sexy enough for mass appeal and a public that has been fed a steady diet of sexually stimulating messages will simply never digest the reality of oil depletion, let alone its consequences (wordiness doesn’t help, I know).
You have my praise and support,
I’m a big supporter of decreasing our dependence on any oil, foreign or domestic! I came to this site hoping to learn more.
Now all of that is forgotten, and all I can do is fantasize about your hot bod behind the oil cans. Wanna go out sometime?
Kris,
On James H. Kuntsler’s cast i heard you say that you wanted to know how you could really reach people and, whereas, I admire your willingness to branch out from the standard route of presentation, in practical terms, I thought the blatant sex sell was entirely self-defeating. I found myself unable to listen to what you were saying; if the message is the point, the point was lost.
I know that its hard to reach people, about thirty seconds into it you can see their eyes gloss over- they’re not interested, they’re not listening. Quite frankly, i don’t think people are at present in a place where they can truly hear what we have to say, at least not on the “problem” side. However, i think people are very ready, though they may not understand why, to hear about the “solution” side. Any time i bring up urban gardening, public art projects, neighborhood rehabilitation, and other community-building activities people get really excited- they want to hear more, and what’s better, they want to get involved.
We may not be able to reach people with our pain, but we can certainly reach them with our passion- just stay focused on the positive stuff.
matthew
“Learn how to love like your life depends on it, because it does.”
-Michael Franti
I heard Kunstlers commentary on the Kunstler kast.
Funny.
I think as long as you get people’s attention that’s a good thing.
just dont go down the “hotforwords” route TOO much (see youtube)
It’s like in LA we have this weather girls who is so hot (Jackie Johnson) that you never remember what the weather is. Which I guess doesn’t really matter in LA because the weather’s always the same.
Ignore all the negative comments - this is a great idea!
There are a lot of people addressing the serious angles of the Peak Oil issue.
Your approach is a novel one, and will be a useful complement to the other ways of alerting the citizenry.
It’s refreshing to see a young person aware & committed.
Interesting… I have to admit that I was initially turned off by the idea (let’s be clear, as a 25 year old male, I was ‘intellectually’ turned off) but I’m warming up to the possibilities of this medium.
I came by peak oil via ‘The End of Suburbia’ and in particular JHK’s ear-catching social commentary. It’s occurred to me since that some people aren’t caught by the ear — they’re caught by the eye. I sense a certain degree of yin and yang between the two of you. JHK can grab people with clever turns of phrase while you eat up the stragglers with clever turns of [ahem!]. To put it differently, some people like bitter; some like sweet. I happen to be a bitter young(ish) enviro-nazi crank, but, ‘different strokes for different folks’ as they say.
Taking the example of ‘The Lonely Island’ guys, there’s no doubt that internet video and YouTube in particular have the ability to reach a lot of people…. even important ones (OK Lorne Michaels isn’t THAT important).
Anyways, one of these days, when I’m a little less worn out, I’d love to pitch some ideas your way … as well as some light-hearted criticism — don’t worry I’m a pussycat
Keep up the good work!
mlr on TOD
P.S. you mention the list of things made of petroleum in this video and I have to say when I was first looking into the issue I thought “bah! who needs it!” …. until I saw guitar strings on the list….. as a fellow musician (and cat owner) tell me you don’t cringe at the alternative.
Brilliant.
Laughably, I re-directed here from a Kunstlercast, and strangely -
I think he missed the most important part of your motif.
I would think that “naked ladies” outdraw just about any other topic on the web.
That makes your show a double-whammy, mammy.
Off that topic - grabbing any casual and probably non-aware response available,
you’ve put together a nice snappy intro to the subject.
Bravo!
Gotta admit: hard to pay attention at all to the words.;-)
I scrolled down to read the comments, and guess what? Someone was actually talking in the background! Imagine that.
Heard about you from the Kunstlercast, too.
Kevin Walsh: I was there, too. Comments about the conference and the world are at my blog.
Thanks for your contribution, even if I probably didn’t hear your presentation among the 50.
A great approach to attract those who would otherwise have little interest in your message; clear and concise, you blend your overall purpose into something that not only keeps the attention of the audience, but there is also attention paid to do such tastefully. I support you one hundred percent, and agree that Peak Oil is a topic that should be on the tip of the tongue of every global citizen, and applaud your effort in spreading awareness using means outside of the status quo.