A number of people have asked if I planned to feature this short film done for climate change charity 10:10 as a stupid nonprofit ad.
I'm not going to. Instead, I'm going to label this one an Evil Nonprofit Ad. And as I hope never to encounter anything as reprehensible as this ever again, there won't be a series.
Here it is, though I can't say I recommend you watch it. If you do, you're likely to feel kind of sick for a while.
(It's also here on YouTube.)
Apparently, it was meant to be funny. A jokey, light-hearted fantasy about reducing people who don't agree with you (including children) to splatters of bloody pulp. Yeah, that's just hilarious. No pressure! Wink!
To their credit, the 10:10 Campaign has withdrawn this film. But you just have to ask How did this happen? How did something so vile get approved?
I have no inside knowledge, but I'll hazard a guess: It was made by famous Hollywood professionals. And just as nonprofits are sometimes blinded by the glamour of ad agencies into doing ads that shouldn't exist, the glitz of Hollywood must have just made their brains turn off so they accepted this psychotic disease of a video.
In this case, the result of being dazzled was even worse than it is when ad agencies create stupid, wasteful messages.
Sometimes Hollywood films are so violent and thuggishly vicious you get the feeling you're looking straight into some kind of demonic heart of darkness. Many make the claim that it's all just a joke. This film has that same feeling.
It doesn't even make a case for reducing your carbon footprint. It just says people who don't get it deserve violent summary executions at the hands of low-level bureaucrats. (After I saw it, I had a strong urge to drive my car a lot and cut down some trees. Anything to dissociate myself from the wickedness.)
So a no-doubt good-hearted nonprofit organization now looks like a pack of psychos. They've handed climate-change deniers a perfect little straw man that "proves" their claim that environmentalists are anti-human nazis. (The wingnut fever swamp is loving this gift.) They've done lasting, maybe irreparable damage to their own reputation and to their cause in general.
Don't let it happen to you. If someone cool and famous offers you something, you still have to think carefully and critically about what they're offering. It's not necessarily good. It may be the worst thing that ever happens to you.
