The Day After Tomorrow: Trailer
The Day After Tomorrow is considered a quintessential eco-apocalypse film. It’s an example of clif-fi (climate fiction), which depicts a worse case scenario for climate tipping points. It’s a good source to discuss how to communicate about the dangers of global heating. Eco-apocalypse is one of the most common environmental discourses used by environmentalists. The question for students is, how effective is this? Does watching it change people’s understanding of the climate?
Food, Inc.
The opening four minute title sequence features the voice of food journalist, Michael Pollan, discussing how food packaging depicts (and misleads) about American agriculture. This is an excellent example of how environmental discourses are communicated in everyday life and models for students how to analyze them.
Planet Earth II: Official Extended Trailer (BBC Earth)
This BBC trailer can be used for discussions about the representations of wilderness, animals, environmental discourses, and environmental ideology. It’s important to also pay attention to the use of Hollywood-style film language.
Among Giants: Short Documentary About Tree Sitting
Synopsis: “Risking injury and incarceration, an environmental activist disrupts the clear-cutting of an ancient redwood grove by sitting on a tiny platform a hundred feet up in the tree canopy. Already three years into the tree-sit when filming begins, AMONG GIANTS blends vérité cinematography with intimate personal reflection to remarkable effect.” This can be compared to how advertisers represent environmental activism. It can also be used to explore environmental ideology.
Kia Niro Super Bowl ad: “Hero’s Journey” Starring Melissa McCarthy
This 2017 Super Bowl ad for Kia uses humor to show how difficult it is to save the environment. The ad offers an easy solution by encouraging people to buy Kia’s hybrid. This is good for exploring the representation of environmental activism and sustainability.
HSBC’s Lumberjack Ad: Pitting Tree Sitters Against Loggers
This 2008 ad for HSBC portrays the conflict between tree-sitters (activists trying to stop deforestation of old-growth forests) and loggers. It closes with the phrase: “We recognise how people value things differently. So what we learn from one customer helps us better serve another.” Students can be encouraged to explore the environmental values being represented in the ad and discuss how it relates to HSBC’s financial policies and environmental impacts. This can also be used to explore and discuss differing environmental ideologies.
Chipotle Ad: Back to the Start
Willie Nelson, Coldplay, Chipotle and director Johnny Kelly collaborated with the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation to create this short animated film highlighting the issue of sustainable farming. This video is good for generating a discussion about different food systems–sustainable and industrial–and how these systems are represented. This is also excellent for exploring the spectrum of environmental ideologies (anthropocentric versus ecocentric). Given that this is produced by a fast food chain, could this be considered an example of greenwashing?
Ford’s EV Ad: Organic Compost
Pashon Murray, founder of Detroit Dirt (http://www.detroitdirt.org), parodies the Cadillac ELR Coupe Super Bowl ad. It shows a version of the American Dream in which an entrepreneurial Black women succeeds by creating a business of organic compost. This video should be juxtaposed with the Cadillac Super Bowl ad and can be used as the basis of a discussion about competing visions of the American Dream (who it includes or excludes and its impact on the environment). This ad can be used to explore ecological values. It can also be used in any discussion about the range of environmental politics portrayed in advertising.
Cadillac EV Super Bowl Ad: The American Dream?
This Cadillac 2014 Commercial is for their electric vehicle (EV) ELR Coupe. Explore with students how it represents the American Dream and its connection with class status, race, and gender. The ad is promoting an EV, but are the beliefs and values depicted beneficial or damaging to the environment? Compare this ad with Ford’s Upside: Anything is Possible ad.
Samsung Ad: Drag and Drop World
A 2008 ad from the early days of touchscreen technology, it touts the benefits of being able to change and manipulate the world. This is a great warm-up video to discuss whether or not it expresses anthropocentric (human centric) or ecocentric (environmental centric) values. Students can discuss who has the power to shape and change the world and for what ends (for example, what kind of person in the video has the power to manipulate the world). It also allows for the discussion of the types of behaviors that are beneficial or damaging to the environment. Finally, it also depicts gender relations and can be used to discuss the relationship between gender and the environment (ecofeminism).