Here’s our latest customizable video. Click here to download. This is the link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-hGhzF8P6g) to the one on our YouTube channel if you want to use it “as-is.” Email me if you need help. And here is last year’s Mother’s Day video, if you like that one better.
Please let me know what you think. What would you change or do differently? Are we on the right track? Thanks!
~Art
Here’s the Earth Day video we made! Download a copy by “right-clicking” here. The file for downloading is a 720p mp4 at 30 fps, 15 sec duration. It has all of the titles removed except for “Earth Day…April 22.” If you don’t know how to customize this video with your own words, check out this video. If you want us to customize it for you, send us an e-mail.
~Art
Here’s a new video we made. It’s about rainy, gloomy days and how we should be “More like plants!”
Let us know if you’d like to be able to download it for customization.
~Art
There are a bunch of loud whiny voices out there all upset that plants come in plastic pots which may end up in a landfill.
These are the same people who cheer when any other consumer product is packaged in a way that cuts waste 10%, yet they conveniently ignore that the product IN the package (running shoes, laser printers, plastic toys) is itself likely to end up in a landfill within 2 years.
No other product helps the environment at all, and most actually do harm. Plants are the only thing that actually do good: they clean the air, reducing carbon and creating oxygen. They prevent erosion and runoff, create shade and reduce energy costs while providing beauty and wildlife habitat. And they get better at doing it every single year!
So why won’t the whiners cut us any slack?
So what if our plastic packaging isn’t ideal – we aren’t 100% perfect. Big deal. The bad we do is insignificant compared to the good, right?
Why can’t they see that?
Who do they think we are, Mother Teresa?
Creator’s Commentary: I first thought of this analogy at the same time as “superman,” when at a meeting with the EPA it was obvious that governemnt regulators did not care if the product IN the packaging helped the environment, the plastic pot was all they could see. How serious of an issue is the use of plastic nursery containers?
This particular poster was taken down mid-way through the ANLA Clinic becasue of its offensive imagery. Someone walking through the hotel (not a Clinic atendee) saw it and caused quite a scene, from what I heard later. I was not there. Bob Dolibois diffused the situation by removing the poster. I think he thought I would be upset at the unreasonable censorship and demand that it go back up, but my reply was, “Well, it offeneded me too!” and “Mission accomplished.” There was, perhaps, more discussion about the poster after it was banned than there was before.
I was asked if the photo of Mother Teresa was fake. The answer is, yes, of course. The cigarette and the smoke were added in Photoshop. I thought of putting a Zippo or a pack of Camels in her hands. I apologize for corrupting a religious icon. I am not Catholic, so I do not ascribe anything beyond piety and godliness to Teresa. However, as a Christian, I do not like when artists cheaply debase pictures of Christ to make a point. I would never have considered altering an image of, say, the Last Supper or Jesus on the cross. I see a difference, but maybe this poster should not have hung in the first place?
In any case, this is the only poster that I brought home and it is in my office now.
~Art
This spring the Chesapeake Club is kicking off a campaign called “Plant More Plants.” They are airing TV ads in the Metro DC, Baltimore, Richmond, and Hampton Roads markets. They have produced two 30-second ads that encourage homeowners to aid the Chesapeake Bay by planting more plants, thereby reducing runoff.
This is amazingly cool for the green industry. Someone has gone and done what we couldn’t do ourselves: made a major media campaign to promote plants. So who is the Chesapeake Club, why are they gifting us this free advertising, who’s paying for it and how can we take this and run with it?
The Chesapeake Club is a public-relations offshoot of the Chesapeake Bay Program, which is a “partnership of people and organizations, ranging from federal and state agencies to local governments to non-profits and academic institutions.” So, who is that, really? The key partners are government entities, including Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and the EPA, as well as many cities and local governments.
The first media campaign by the Chesapeake Club aired in 2008-2010 with the tag-line: “Save the crabs, then eat them.” The purpose of the ads was to convince homeowners to skip application of fertilizers to their lawns in the spring.
When it comes to the “Plant More Plants” initiative, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is coordinating the campaign, which was funded by a $500,000 grant awarded in 2008 by the National Fish and Wildlife grant program.
Aren’t we fortunate they decided to make the center of their awareness campaign the need for increased use of our product instead of the negative aspects of keeping the grass green? The Virginia DCR deserves a thank-you note, but the “Plant More Plants” concept wasn’t the Chesapeake Club’s idea, or the EPAs or any of the partners of the Chesapeake Bay Program. Who do we have to thank?
According to Gary Waugh of the Virginia DCR, the ad agency BCF, of Virginia Beach, created the new strategy based on a very broad directive “to encourage personal stewardship to improve the environmental quality of the Chesapeake Bay.” They thought a positive message about plants might be better than a negative message about fertilizer. So… thanks, BCF! You guys rock!
Garden Centers and Landscape companies can sign-up and be listed on the “Plant More Plants” website. Those who do will get to have access to marketing materials and may be able to use the “Plant More Plants” facebook page to promote their own “Bay-friendly” landscape practices. But as of this writing, only six garden centers and fifteen landscape companies are involved!
To sign-up, send Gary Waugh an e-mail.
How long will this campaign run? The Chesapeake Club has pretty much spent all of the grant money on producing the ads and buying air-time. As with the “fertilizer” campaign, they will conduct pre-and-post consumer awareness surveys. If the results do not show that the ads are effective, they will try a different approach in the future.
We don’t want that to happen! We as an industry really MUST get behind this and support it, promote it, and blow it up.
So, what do we do? How can we take this and run with it?
Hey, we thought this might be useful to someone. Download everything you need to easily customize this photo with your own logo and message.
Let your customers know that you’re stocked up for the season!
Need help? E-mail me. Have an idea you’d like us to do? E-mail me. Want to see more things like this in the future? Leave a comment, please. Was this useful? Share a link. Thanks!
~A
Here’s our latest video, a poem called “Dormancy.” Feel free to use however you’d like. It can be downloaded by right-clicking this link and then selecting “Save Target As…” The download version does not have the titles for “openHort,” so you can put your own message in. ~Art
What do you think of this video we found? We think it’s awesome. Have you heard about this Auburn tree poisoning thing?
PS. I’ll post my latest video, “Dormancy” very soon. ~A
This is no time for a nap, Superman.
Hey, there. You’re so comfortable being Clark Kent that you’re too scared to show the world your superpowers. What, are you waiting for an invitation? For the world to come to a sudden stop, for people to come crawling on their hands and knees, begging for your help? It doesn’t work like that. You need to get over yourself.
So you’re shy. You hate self-promotion. Never been one to toot your own horn, and you don’t think much of the folks that do. Yeah, we get it. You’re a real salt-of-the-earth farm boy. Understood.
But you have something that nobody else has. And the world needs you … desperately. Even more so than they realize, and by the time they wake up to the problem, it may be too late.
You see, your product is the one thing–the only thing– that can reduce carbon, purify air and water, reduce erosion, moderate temperatures. And you do it all without breaking a sweat! Your superpowers put all the other heroes to shame, yet you still shun the spotlight. Does that make you somehow more noble?
You have the answer, Superman. So what if the world could care less?
Creator’s Commentary: This was the first poster in the series, and the idea dates back several years to a meeting that the ANLA arranged at the Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show (MANTS) with representatives from the EPA to discuss the problem of plastic containers going to landfills. Their message to growers and pot manufacturers was basically a threat: “Fix this problem because you don’t want us to fix it for you.” At the time I was amazed that these regulators could not see any distinction between our product and, say, a can of soda or an ink-jet printer. It did not matter that the thing INSIDE the packaging was the ONLY THING known to man that actually fixes CO2, creates O2, prevents erosion, produces shade, purifies water…etc.
At that meeting I said something like, “Hey, our product is Superman. This whole plastic pot thing is like we have our cape tucked into our shorts.”
I really do believe that plants are like Superman, and that we in our industry (myself included) act like Clark Kent. We have let every other product brazenly declare their green-cred and environmental consciousness while we quietly sit by and get criticized because we use plastic pots, synthetic fertilizer and necessary pesticides. Who’s fault is that?
For this poster, I first searched for a picture of Superman with his cape tucked into his red shorts. Didn’t find one. (So I came up with the Mother Teresa analogy for that idea, which I will post soon.) I did find an interesting one from the cartoon, Challenge of the Superfriends, of Superman looking into a circus mirror (and this gave me the idea for the “Your Mirror is a Liar” poster).
The photo I used is stolen directly from the poster for the film “Confessions of a Superhero” by Matt Ogens, which is a quirky look at self-delusion exhibited by people dressing up as super heroes on Hollywood Blvd.
In my opinion, the best part of this image is the wallpaper. Wallflower indeed! Get off the couch!
~A
Everyone loves plants! Heck, everyone needs plants, and they enjoy thinking about them all the time, dreaming about their next garden project – just like you do. Consumers are tired of digital this and wireless that – they long to toss their smartphones and get their hands dirty.
Shopping for plants on a beautiful spring Saturday is relaxing and soothing. What could be more calming than muscling a cart through gravel paths up to a cinderblock and plywood table to squint at tiny care tags as you debate which perennial to plant next?
Your customers come to you demanding new and exotic plants they’ve never seen or heard of before.
The Outdoor Room is the new living room!
And hey, don’t statistics tell us that Gardening is America’s #1 pastime? Demand should be going up-up-up with all this new environmental awareness, staycations, the baby boomers remodeling their yards because they can’t sell their homes.
Everyone knows that plants are the only thing that can save the planet … and YOU grow plants!
You’re a hero! They love you!
Creator’s commentary:
Back in November 2010 I was asked to create a “conversation station” at the ANLA New Clinic. My task: “thought-provoke the attendees around the bigger, marketplace-changing ideas you have been percolating on…The idea is to catch people’s attention…” I agreed to do this because it interested me creatively and because I love the ANLA Clinic.
I made 12 poster designs. 10 were displayed at the Clinic. One was taken down because it offended a passer-by. I’m not sure they were successful in sparking many conversations, or that attendees found them interesting or beautiful. At risk of beating dead horses, I plan to share them here and offer my thoughts on them. Feel free to comment!
I am sharing this Mirror poster first because I think it encapsulates my approach to the series.
The design: I wanted to start with a strong idea that was insulting, jarring, strange or somehow out of the ordinary. Then, I wanted an arresting image that would act as a metaphor. We knew we needed text as well, so I decided to adopt an age-old ad format called the Ogilvy that was popular in magazines like Life in the 50’s and 60’s. I felt there was a bit of sublime irony here in that theses posters would look like advertisements but were the furthest thing from a commercial message. The ANLA Clinic has increasingly allowed sponsoring companies to promote their products, which I view with a little distaste…however I must admit that I was on the Clinic committee when we first decided to court sponsors’ money. In any case, I thought it fun to have the most brazenly ad-like display. The font was picked to fit the theme for the Clinic this year: an urban, re-construction, edgy, in-your-face kind of look. Each poster had a “headline” around the photo that would explain the metaphor/argument but not too much, and often with a double meaning.
The message: At first I had the headline as: “you think you’re…NOT A WITCH…because your…MIRROR IS A LIAR.” The change to “beautiful” was both less insulting and more to my point. The body text was, of course, sarcastic, poking fun at how we fail to rightly see ourselves as others see us. Many of us live at our businesses. We spend all of our time there. We talk to each other. We plan vacations around trade shows. We don’t allow a lot of outside influences. As I have written regarding “Plants vs Zombies,” I feel that we are losing relevance (and therefore value) and we don’t even know it. And those moments when we do get a glimpse of what we look like to others outside the “plant world” we dislike it so much that we quickly dismiss it. “Like a man who looks in the mirror and then turning away immediately forgets what he looks like.” This lack of self-awareness is, no doubt, an ageless part of the human condition. And those of us inclined to introspection may worry about it more than the blissfully ignorant braggart, but that does not mean that we are any better equipped to actually do anything about it.
The short of it: We have an image problem. We should work on that.
Thanks for reading. Please let me know if you wish to hear about the other 11!
~Art