The hard science doesn't help global warming alarmists sell their programs. And neither does public opinion as polls consistently show (despite the agitation from Hollywood, the press and the Democrats) that the citizenry isn't buying into the hyped-up claims of man-made climate change.What to do? Pull in some social scientists and advertising gurus and figure out how to better shape the sales pitch.
That's what ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental marketing and messaging company, has been working on for a few years. But...oops!... a summary of the group’s recommendations was accidentally e-mailed to some news organizations by someone who listened in on a briefing intended for government officials and environmental leaders.
At least, that's the story being told. I wouldn't be surprised if the leak itself is part of the game, a trial balloon which uses the responses to the news stories just as they would a focus group.
Robert M. Perkowitz, ecoAmerica’s president and founder, was a marketer of outdoor clothing and home furnishings before he started the company. He's still in the sales business but this time with a markedly bad product, one that just doesn't stand up to scientific scrutiny. No matter. People will buy anything if the pitch is slick enough. And the folks who are paying Perkowitz do not care about product -- they just care about sales.
Robert J. Brulle of Drexel University, describing ecoAmerica's new approach, says everybody's doing it. “You want to sell toothpaste, we’ll sell it. You want to sell global warming, we’ll sell that. It’s the use of advertising techniques to manipulate public opinion.” He said the approach was cynical and, worse, ineffective. “The right uses it, the left uses it, but it doesn’t engage people in a face-to-face manner,” he said, “and that’s the only way to achieve real, lasting social change.”
