Together creates energy wasting day viral as April Fool

by Nikki Sandison, Brand Republic 26-Mar-08, 14:05

LONDON - Consumer climate change campaign group Together has created a viral film suggesting ways to waste as much energy as possible as an April Fool's Day spoof.

The energy wasting day viral features a fictional character called Dan Power who revels in wasteful behaviour such as overfilling the kettle, turning up his thermostat and driving a huge 4X4.

The film directs users to visit the energy wasting day website where Power reveals more energy wasting tips and there are links to his Myspace and Facebook pages.

Together found from its research that while there was a growing portion of the population who were seriously committed to becoming greener, 26% of people would only get the message if it was made "a bit warmer, more fashionable and a lot more fun".

The viral is designed to provide an alternative to the more serious climate change tips and advice which Together believes risk turning people off.

It hopes that through exaggeration and humour in the form of extremely wasteful Dan Power that it will provoke a response of "What an idiot!" and "What a waste".

David Hall, campaign director of Together, said: "This campaign is an opportunity for us to show people how ridiculous wasting energy really is. It will enable us to get the Together message to a much wider audience in a highly entertaining way, to increase traffic to together.com and to communicate some of Together's very easy and affordable energy saving ideas along the way."

Together launched last year to help UK households to reduce CO2 emissions and has been endorsed by Tony Blair and former US vice-president Al Gore. Its partners include B&Q, Barclaycard, British Gas, BSkyB, Marks & Spencer, O2 and Tesco.