After logging in this morning and seeing that I’ve had 2 comments (2 comments! Count ‘em!), one issue arising from said comments has been stuck in my head. Rob and Andrea have both picked up on the question of advertising for green electricity.
Basically, we need rather more and it needs to be tailored for different age groups. It’s unlikely that youthful Hoxton types are going to be persuaded by a short film showing a middle-aged home counties couple switching tariffs with surprising ease, and it’s equally improbable that older couples with larger houses and more people to provide power for will be swayed by photos of Agyness Deyn perched next to her wind turbine.
I'm with Andrea – green electricity tariffs were a vague notion in the back of my mind before I took on this challenge (it ranked somewhere between council tax and sub-prime mortgages). Adverts for electricity tend to focus on the money-saving aspects, and they’re also quite boring (the flame family in the British Gas adverts are ok, but they’re not a patch on the Haribo kid or the Cadbury’s gorilla).
I suspect that most of us think green electricity is all wave power and space-age solar panels, and Rob’s point that it needs to be made to seem more accessible is a good one. Who owned an eco-shopper before magazines started giving them away instead of rubbish flip-flops, or before M&S sold them, or before the hoo-hah surrounding the Anya Hindmarch bag? I’d wager not very many of us.
As I said in my last blog, switching to a green tariff is remarkably easy - though perhaps not so easy on the bank account - and the companies need to let the public know this. Granted, I think my dad would ride to work on a penny farthing if he could and contact people only by telegram (well perceived, Rob), but if he would sit down in front of a computer and see how easy it was it’d be a step in the right direction. The same goes for younger people too: we just need better advertising to project green tariffs as a viable option.
Basically, we need rather more and it needs to be tailored for different age groups. It’s unlikely that youthful Hoxton types are going to be persuaded by a short film showing a middle-aged home counties couple switching tariffs with surprising ease, and it’s equally improbable that older couples with larger houses and more people to provide power for will be swayed by photos of Agyness Deyn perched next to her wind turbine.
I'm with Andrea – green electricity tariffs were a vague notion in the back of my mind before I took on this challenge (it ranked somewhere between council tax and sub-prime mortgages). Adverts for electricity tend to focus on the money-saving aspects, and they’re also quite boring (the flame family in the British Gas adverts are ok, but they’re not a patch on the Haribo kid or the Cadbury’s gorilla).
I suspect that most of us think green electricity is all wave power and space-age solar panels, and Rob’s point that it needs to be made to seem more accessible is a good one. Who owned an eco-shopper before magazines started giving them away instead of rubbish flip-flops, or before M&S sold them, or before the hoo-hah surrounding the Anya Hindmarch bag? I’d wager not very many of us.
As I said in my last blog, switching to a green tariff is remarkably easy - though perhaps not so easy on the bank account - and the companies need to let the public know this. Granted, I think my dad would ride to work on a penny farthing if he could and contact people only by telegram (well perceived, Rob), but if he would sit down in front of a computer and see how easy it was it’d be a step in the right direction. The same goes for younger people too: we just need better advertising to project green tariffs as a viable option.
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