Comments on: Which are more powerful? Dreams or Nightmares?

By: CT

CT — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:48:51 +0000

I would say this as I’m a fan of, and work with them, but check out http://www.transitionnetwork.org – excellent language, clear goals etc.

By: Antonio

Antonio — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:02:08 +0000

Ed: I LOVE Transition Towns, it’s such a brilliant idea – need to look more into this I think.

Bobbie: Yes – I guess fear sells papers and gets politicians elected. Adam Curtis’ The Power of Nightmares is a great study into this. I guess the big question is whether can fear make the world better.

Thanks for all the comments!

By: Dave Harte

Dave Harte — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:27:56 +0000

Antonio. For info:
Presentation on slideshare:
http://www.slideshare.net/daveharte/running-at-marathon-pace-just-to-stand-still

My review of the event I pitched it at:
http://daveharte.com/social-media/wxwm2-half-a-review/

By: Bobbie Gardner

Bobbie Gardner — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:36:39 +0000

Funny… current read is Panic-ology by Briscoe and Aldersey-Williams and am delivering workshops entitled Dazzling Dreams and Nasty Nightmares to year 5 students, best nightmare image was:

‘Wakes up in a forest, evil witch comes from a dark and dull cave with poison ivy. The witch makes everything disappear including family, except you. It’s a white room. ‘

Most interesting point so far in the book is that the media have risen stakes of fear and anxiety illustrated by this lovely formula: risk= hazard x public outrage. Being killed by a volcanic blast doesn’t affect us as much these days, but terrorist attacks make us angry, but could the odds of them occurring be the same/close?

As you know our fears of course are distorted by those writing the stats for their own personal agendas…

Sandal wearing hippy are you, but I think society’s anxiety levels could easily be reduced by journalists (who claim to be experts in so many areas) using less hyperbolic language, then again we still read the damm articles.

By: Antonio

Antonio — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:29:26 +0000

Dave – That’s *exactly* the kind of thing I’m talking about – will definitely check out that talk. Seems like we’re on the same wavelength

Levent – but I don’t smoke and I don’t look anything like Beyonce. What was that? Oh, really? Well I did get my hair done recently.. oh thankyou *blush*

Seriously though – it’s a good question when it comes to anti-smoking campaigns. They really are designed to scare the shit out of you aren’t they? I don’t know the research on whether they work or not, so maybe I’ll go and find out. Good question!

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:20:25 +0000

I would say this as I’m a fan of, and work with them, but check out http://www.transitionnetwork.org – excellent language, clear goals etc.

By: Levent

Levent — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:59:30 +0000

If cigarette packaging had captions and supporting images such as “Quit smoking and you’ll have skin like Beyonce*” do you believe it would have a better effect than the current strategy (which doesn’t seem to work in itself)?

*also dependent on DNA, diet and deep-exfoliation

By: Dave Harte

Dave Harte — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:42:23 +0000

I presented on this very subject at wxwm2 last month. I imagined a replacement of the tedious government obesity campaign ‘Change for Life’ with a celebration of all the data that runners gather in their GPS devices on a sunday morning. All those miles, all that exercising. How about we add in all the amateur footie matches going on as well. Imagine a live map that showed all the miles covered by the people who do engage in sport and exercise. That would send a more powerful message about participation rather than the demonisation we get now.

But then PR in general stinks. It doesn’t understand the potential of new communication tools and if it’s not yet stopped working then it’s on its way to it.