The World Wildlife Federation launched a new street campaign in China in January that shows just how much pollution one car produces. The 23-foot balloon not only puts a spotlight on individual pollution, but also drives traffic to WWF’s new site that gives 20 tips on how each person can cut their own pollution by 20 percent.

This PSA reminded me of several others I wrote about in Wired‘s now defunt Metrophile blog. I’ve decided to repost here so people who hadn’t seen these creative campaigns could take a look.

PSA’s are one area of marketing that requires a lot of creativity for people to listen and I think organizations are not only starting to take notice but they’re starting to get the creative manpower (at cost) that they need to make a mark.

On March 6th, a month shy of the 1906 earthquake anniversary, the Bay Area Chapter of the American Red Cross partnered up with advertising company Publicis & Hal Riney for their latest campaign. The Prepare Bay Area project attempts to raise awareness on the importance of disaster preparedness.

According to the Red Cross, only 6-percent of people are prepared for a natural disaster in the Bay Area, which led to an aggressive push by the non-profit to literally show people what to expect when the big one hits. And it’s not just the big one we should be prepared for. “Disasters come in all shapes and sizes,” says Prepare Bay Area spokesperson Michael Patrick. “Even though our thrust in this particular campaign is earthquakes, the American Red Cross responds to all kinds of disasters including rock slides, floods, and fires.” Which means the preparing you do for an earthquake — make a plan, create a water, food, and first aid kit, and get trained — can help whether you’re in an earthquake, tornado, hurricane, or even, a terrorist attack.

“With Hal Riney we’re really shaking things up a bit. There was some concern over should the Red Cross take this sort of stance, because it’s a little too in your face and the American Red Cross should really be there to help. One of the reasons we gave this a shot is because folks weren’t listening,” explains Patrick.

Well now they are. The campaign has been well received not only in the Bay Area, but across the nation and even across the Atlantic as blogs, newschannels, and magazines such as Metropolis and Creativity publish the artwork, inadvertantly spreading the PSA.

Four projects have debuted so far. The first was a two-sided mobile billboard parked on Market Street, in front of the Ferry Building.



From one side you see the Ferry Building in shambles and from the other you see Market Street torn up by the fictitious quake. The copy reads, “What do we have to do to get your attention? Be prepared.”

The billboards’ interaction with real architecture reminds me of the Melbourne house I posted about earlier this month.

While the billboard was parked, the Red Cross passed out empty water bottles that read, “Try living on this for three days.”



Faux Earthquake Early Warning System alarms (a riff on the Tsunami early warning systems that have been implemented in the Pacific) were installed as well.



The Red Cross also used Craigslist to spread the word on the importance of keeping your home up to code. They posted a fake ad for an apartment that hinted at what your home could look like if you don’t take the right precautions. The posting has since come down, but Metrophile scored screenshots.



Next up is a print campaign, which Metrophile got an exclusive look at. [Click on the images to get a larger look.]



The seismograph etching says, “Oh look honey, a pasta maker that’s fun, we totally need….an emergency disaster kit! Do we have a disaster kit?!…Only 6% of people in the Bay Area are prepared for an earthquake.”



“We should definitely take this ballroom dancing class. That would be so…stupid! Why didn’t we take a first aid course?! What do we do?!…Only 6% of people in the Bay Area are prepared for an earthquake.”



“Where’s the remote? It was right here. Honey where’s…Justin! Does he know what to do?! Did we ever talk about this?!…Only 6% of people in the Bay Area are prepared for an earthquake.”

[Photos: Publicis & Hal Riney]

This isn’t the end of the campaign. Over the course of the year the Bay Area Chapter is planning on creating some guerilla campaigns in the streets of San Francisco, as well as TV adverts. Scared yet?

Here are a few others I’ve found.

Does anybody know when this David Lynch PSA aired? The bike gang looks very 80s.



Oh Sonny Bono…He may not be high on pot in this PSA but he’s definitely high. And now for the Debbie Downer. According to this Youtube poster the following is airing on Arabic channels to dissuade people from becomming suicide bombers. It’s grim, but it also has a really weird aesthetic. I don’t know if it’s because of the low quality graphics, but it has a strange 2-D quality reminiscent of old Aeon Flux episodes.

And nothing beats Edward Norton’s PSA found on the Fight Club DVD.

No one.

And finally, the very NSFW PSA after the jump



This is from a French AIDS campaign.

Yowza!

[thanks WFMU]