[eclipse]

Hi all,
My wife and I finally got around to designing the next peak oil poster that can be printed in either colour or B&W.

I like it, what do others think?
(This image is low rez for easy BB browsing — download the FREE hi-rez versions at my home page below.)



Can I challenge you do download it and put it up at your local library, shops, and anywhere else you might have a public bulletin board?

Download either A4 or US letter below.

http://eclipsenow.blogspot.com/2007/04/ ... -2015.html

[TorrKing]

I think you should have a starving white person instead of an African one, so they understand that they are the ones in question.

By the way, I have an idea for a t-shirt, which I would very much like to have (for myself at least). How can I have such one produced?

[eclipse]

I guess get a designer to do a freebie design for you and then email to a T-shirt printer. Any more designer's here? I'm flat out, and it's been months and months since I've found time to do another poster.

Or, download a free copy of Gimpshop and try designing it yourself, then google around T-shirt printers. Gotta love open source software hey?

Yeah, I might try and find another image... maybe starving Aussie interns in WW2 prisoner of war camps... otherwise where else and I going to find starving white people?

BTW — would you put up a poster like this? There's a certain smallish adrenaline rush putting one up in a public place, but that is compensated by later in the week walking by and seeing the tear-off tabs going, and imagining people googling peak oil and eating fossil fuels for the first time.

At least, I like imagining them. The first time I bumped into LATOC some 2.5 years ago my brain nearly fell out.

[TorrKing]

I wouldn't expect it to raise much awareness. Do you really think you will make a difference (not trying to be harsh here)? I think, if it isn't connected to a profit making company, it is important to appreciate that this is only going to be for fun. My t-shirt certainly will be for fun only.

Also, I think you can expect that a lot of them will be torn down.

Gimp is great, thanks.

[Ayame]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eclipse', '
')Can I challenge you do download it and put it up at your local library, shops, and anywhere else you might have a public bulletin board?

[steam_cannon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eclipse', 'I') guess get a designer to do a freebie design for you and then email to a T-shirt printer. Any more designer's here? I'm flat out, and it's been months and months since I've found time to do another poster.

[steam_cannon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eclipse', '
')BTW — would you put up a poster like this? There's a certain smallish adrenaline rush putting one up in a public place, but that is compensated by later in the week walking by and seeing the tear-off tabs going, and imagining people googling peak oil and eating fossil fuels for the first time.

At least, I like imagining them. The first time I bumped into LATOC some 2.5 years ago my brain nearly fell out.

[eclipse]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')ool website... And an interesting idea, leaving info for the mentally shielded sheeple to find and blow their mind. Seriously, blowing their mind with science - as in how much energy goes into making food. But the problem I see is, most people are reactive, not planners. They have little forethought and are unlikely to start thinking about how they will eat until they miss a meal. So I consider that idea slightly futile, I do understand the appeal of tear-off tabs Wink

[eclipse]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ayame', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eclipse', '
')Can I challenge you do download it and put it up at your local library, shops, and anywhere else you might have a public bulletin board?

[Madpaddy]

I like it but lets be totally blunt and call it;

Super-Famine 2010. Imagine a world where demand for oil cannot be met. And I agree with Torjus. Lose the African child - the west has compaasion fatigue from pictures of starving African children. They would still be starving if their countries were awash with oil (which many of them are). Their problem is corrupt and incompetent governments. Hey, that sounds like our problem too.

[eclipse]

Will do... I'll have a go at it later tonight.

[peripato]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')an I challenge you do download it and put it up at your local library, shops, and anywhere else you might have a public bulletin board?

[Commanding_Heights]

Since you're asking what others think I assume you're asking for constructive criticism. So please don't take my critique as a personal attack on you. It's not.

As a fellow PO'er I appreciate the idea behind the flyer and what you're trying to do. I commend you for it. As a guy who gets paid to develop and oversee millions of dollars worth of marketing I wouldn't waste my time or resources putting it up. Why? Because from a marketing standpoint it sucks. Translated into PObonics that means you're going to get a negative EROEI.

You might think that you're not marketing anything that you're trying to raise awareness. Completely wrong. At the end of the day you are selling something and that's PO awareness.

Torjus was right when he/she said that it wouldn't raise much awareness (I'll explain below) but was 100% wrong when he/she said it needed to be connected to a profit making company.

There are reasons companies are making profits and those are:

1. Selling a person something he needs - an example being food

2. Selling to a person who needs what you have but is unaware you have a product available to fulfill that need - for example, let's say you magically came up with a cure for some disease today. You would need to make the people who had that disease aware you had the cure.

3. Selling a person something that you've convinced them they need - just take a look around at all the things people have and don't need. It'll take you no time at all to realize that this is where the economy thrives and survives. It's based on greed. NEVER NEVER NEVER underestimate the power of the human animals' greed.

Steam_Cannon said that most people are reactive and not planners therefore your effort is futile. I totally disagree. The only difference between reaction and planning is the space-time continuum. Whether you plan a natural disaster escape route six months before one happens or you try escaping while one is in progress you're still planning your next move and reacting to that plan. The only difference is the space and time between the former and latter.

Number two above, is where you are trying to make your marketing fit. This would be the natural inclination of most people wanting to spread the word but you're focusing your efforts in the wrong place. You should be focusing your marketing efforts on number three.

You could argue that that PO awareness is something people need a cure for (i.e. number two) and that number three does not apply since it is a necessity. Well... you'd be both 100% right and 100% wrong. Confused yet? I'll try to explain. The reason is there's another human trait that is almost as powerful as greed and that's sloth.

I don't agree with alot of what Leo Strauss spewed but he was spot on about one thing. He said:

There are three types of men. One which he referred to as "The Vulgar". This was the class he put most people into. He said they are lovers of wealth and pleasure. They are selfish, slothful and indolent. They can be inspired to rise above their brutish existence only by fear of impending death or catastrophe.

Notice he put selfish before slothful. This is because he also realized that greed is the ONLY thing that outweighs the slothful nature of a human.

The most irresistible word in the English language has only three letters. The most powerful of all words is "you." This is exactly why number three applies. All a person wants to know is what's in it for them. Like I said NEVER NEVER NEVER underestimate the power of the human animals' greed. But also don't discount their sloth.

With that being said, I don't see the word "you" anywhere in your title caption. MAJOR mistake. As a matter of fact your flyer appeals directly to sloth. By putting the year 2015 you absolutely guaranteed anybody who glances at your poster won't read past those numbers and will file it directly in the "I don't give a shit because whatever that concerns doesn't happen until 2015" bin.

But lets say I did make it past the 2015. The next thing I see is "Imagine a world without oil!" Instead, how about you imagine this:

I'm in the grocery store (where your flyer is) wondering what I'm cooking for dinner, thinking about the fact I have to pick Susie up at soccer practice at 4, then I have to drop by the cleaners, get the car cleaned, check the PO box, cut the lawn before it gets dark, do some paperwork, check PO.com, oh and BTW wonder if the wife will be in the mood tonight?

The point I'm making is why should "I" imagine a world without oil when I've got so many other things going on in my head. Think about it. Every waking minute of the day you have a conversation going on in your head. Your title didn't make the conversation in my head stop.

Roy H. Williams use to tell a story called "A Two-Peso Weather Report." It went like this:

Fred Pitezel is a pilot flying into Mexico with an uneasy feeling about the weather. Fred radios ahead for a weather report, knowing he must pay for all control tower services immediately upon landing. "Senor," asks a voice, do you want the two-peso weather report or the fiiiiiive-peso weather report?" Fred wonders how much of the weather report changes with the price. "I think I'd prefer the ten-peso weather report if you've got one," he says.

Roy says Fred was a very smart man but I'd argue that he just a human. He was asked a question that caused his greed to take over his sloth. He immediately stopped the conversation in his head and actually put thought into the question he was asked. That's what your title needs to do by addressing a persons greed.

Something like:

You May Soon Die of Starvation

Followed with a subtitle like:

Find out why scientist say millions of (Insert country of choice) will soon be dying from starvation by food shortages. And find how you can save yourself and your family.

The above is just an off the cuff idea for a title and subtitle. It can certainly be improved.

Next are your pictures. Most people have never been on a farm or to Africa. They simply don't relate. Neither do the great depression pictures. What modern people do relate to are grocery stores. Imagine a picture of a woman holding her small child’s hand, standing with their backs to you, (shopping basket in the other hand) staring down a long ravaged isle where there is no food left on the shelves, only trash from the mass panic is left on the floor.

Then there's the last part. You tell them about 10 calories of oil for 1 of food. While that may be true it just doesn't compute to the reader at this point. They don't even know what peak oil is. It's irrelevant information at this point in time. Then you go on to ask the sloth’s to do work by googling up terms they WILL NOT remember.

A much better footer would be:

Visit ABC.com for FREE information on how to make sure you're not one of the starving masses.

The just have tear-offs with the website address. This follows KISS and makes it extremely easy on the sloth’s.

Anyways, those are just some quick ideas. Take them for what you feel they're worth.

[Omnitir]

It’s a good idea for a good cause – I think people need to be aware of PO and related issues (regardless of my belief that it’s not going to be the end of the world). The first step in change is awareness of the need for change.

However, is informing people that they are going to be starving in the near future the best way to go about this? Most people would just dismiss this as “the end is nigh!” garbage.

Perhaps a better approach is to alert people to issues that they could more easily see affecting them.

The obvious entry point into PO for the masses is fuel prices.

So I would reason that a poster representing unaffordable fuel prices in the near future would be much more effective then starvation. At least this way more people might take notice and hopefully look further into PO where they will have a better chance of realizing all the implications. I think it’s a much better and more realistic approach then trying to shock them with the full worst case scenario only to have them ignore the message outright.

"Are you ready for $8/gallon?"
"Think fuel is expensive now? ... "
"Like large cars?"
"Planning for the future?"
etc..

[Commanding_Heights]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('peripato', 'W')ouldn't it be wiser then to prevent any large scale enlightenment of the masses and so avert an early collapse? This would provide more time for personal preparation which is really the best we can ask for this late in the game. Ignorance is bliss as they say.

[eclipse]

I have a growing bunch of posters.

Some for the doomers, some for more cerebral peakniks to put up. They appeal to different people, but if repeatedly encountered by the public at their local shops they will so far get, from my first 3 posters,

1. the basics of the FINAL OIL CRISIS (poster 1)

2. $300 to fill up? LET IT RUST (poster 2, with rusted car image)

3. Super-famine 2015 (I don't think a super-western famine is likely, but hey? It starts the conversation and seeds the meme that there is even a link between oil and food).

Oh, and as to people not even remembering the terms Google "peak oil" and "eating fossil fuels" — that's why I've put tear off tabs on them.

And believe it or not, my other 2 posters work. Even the fairly cerebral, wordy "FINAL OIL CRISIS" first poster. Those tear off tabs go after about a week, and for every person who reads the poster and bothers to take a tab there's probably 50 to 100 that have glanced the heading and moved on — but with the nagging doubt of an issue with oil hanging in their subconscious.

I have to do something about awareness, or go crazy.

Eventually I hope to appeal to human greed with a "How to make money from the oil crisis" poster — but that one is a way off yet. Right now, it's the "End is nigh" rubbish that I'm promoting because we know that "business as usual" is not going to continue, whatever scenario you follow. (I'm a "Great depression followed by an emergency economy and massive societal and industrial reshaping" kind of guy.)

[peripato]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') have a growing bunch of posters.

Some for the doomers

[eclipse]

True

as I wrote under Peakniks, Doomers, and collapse.

[peripato]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')osted minutes apart. Mine was being typed while yours was being posted. If only I could have typed faster and got my post up before yours. It might have had more effect, don't you think? But thanks anyways for helping prove my point.

[Commanding_Heights]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('peripato', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')osted minutes apart. Mine was being typed while yours was being posted. If only I could have typed faster and got my post up before yours. It might have had more effect, don't you think? But thanks anyways for helping prove my point.