Last year's Super Bowl got me all hot and bothered because of the confetti on the field. This year the confetti still drove me crazy, but somehow (dare I say) I felt New Orleans deserved it.
The current green Super Bowl controversy has nothing to do with paper and everything to do with a car that was named Green Car of the year by Green Car Journal.
Some greenies are going through the ozone layer in their reaction to the Audi "Green Police" ad, which depicts a world in which Americans are arrested for a variety of crimes against the environment -- choosing plastic over paper, using incandescent light bulbs, not composting compostable refuse and sitting in a too-hot hot tub.
"You picked the wrong day to mess with the ecosystem," says one cop before hauling off a hapless, non-green consumer.
Very little of the controversy stems from objections to Audi's car, the A3 TDI, which runs on "clean diesel" and claims to get 42 mpg on the highway and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30%.
And no one seems to have a problem with Cheap Trick's decision to re-record "The Dream Police" as "The Green Police."
It largely comes from people objecting to greenies being portrayed as "meddlesome do-gooders."
But wait! Isn’t that what we are and isn’t that what we’re supposed to do?
I pass out citations practically everyday at work, home and even on the street. I’m constantly picking paper out of the trash and waiving it in people’s faces asking who threw it away. Or giving people their Miranda rights over the using a plastic water bottle instead of a reusable one. And the only reason I haven’t arrested anyone over hot tub temperatures is because I’m not in LA (though that will be my first call of duty once I return).
The earth needs us to be meddlesome do-gooders!
The best humor makes use of exaggeration as well as humanity. This Audi spot has both. It lampoons the zeal of the green movement, but not its basic principles, which it champions -- and claims to embody -- in a product.
Plus it was funny! It was funnier than the Simpsons Coca-Cola ad (and made a better point).
If the green movement REALLY wants to stop being seen as stuffy, uptight and yes, meddlesome, it needs to laugh more.
Look, as anyone who reads this blog knows, I've been a member of the Green Police for quite some time. And I'm not due for my pension for at least 30 years.
The current green Super Bowl controversy has nothing to do with paper and everything to do with a car that was named Green Car of the year by Green Car Journal.
Some greenies are going through the ozone layer in their reaction to the Audi "Green Police" ad, which depicts a world in which Americans are arrested for a variety of crimes against the environment -- choosing plastic over paper, using incandescent light bulbs, not composting compostable refuse and sitting in a too-hot hot tub.
"You picked the wrong day to mess with the ecosystem," says one cop before hauling off a hapless, non-green consumer.
Very little of the controversy stems from objections to Audi's car, the A3 TDI, which runs on "clean diesel" and claims to get 42 mpg on the highway and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30%.
And no one seems to have a problem with Cheap Trick's decision to re-record "The Dream Police" as "The Green Police."
It largely comes from people objecting to greenies being portrayed as "meddlesome do-gooders."
But wait! Isn’t that what we are and isn’t that what we’re supposed to do?
I pass out citations practically everyday at work, home and even on the street. I’m constantly picking paper out of the trash and waiving it in people’s faces asking who threw it away. Or giving people their Miranda rights over the using a plastic water bottle instead of a reusable one. And the only reason I haven’t arrested anyone over hot tub temperatures is because I’m not in LA (though that will be my first call of duty once I return).
The earth needs us to be meddlesome do-gooders!
The best humor makes use of exaggeration as well as humanity. This Audi spot has both. It lampoons the zeal of the green movement, but not its basic principles, which it champions -- and claims to embody -- in a product.
Plus it was funny! It was funnier than the Simpsons Coca-Cola ad (and made a better point).
If the green movement REALLY wants to stop being seen as stuffy, uptight and yes, meddlesome, it needs to laugh more.
Look, as anyone who reads this blog knows, I've been a member of the Green Police for quite some time. And I'm not due for my pension for at least 30 years.
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