You can thank PT Barnum (quoted in the header) for viral video’s secret formula: videotape some kind of stupid human/animal trick (the more extreme the better) and draw a crowd. Enter Plane Stupid, a group that wants to reduce air travel by using freaky video to draw awareness to its cause. Problem is, the the ad’s logic isn’t logical. While it’s true that our taken for granted use of air travel leaves a tremendous carbon footprint, and the madness of building more airports defies common sense about the global climate crisis, equating a plane ride with a polar bear’s death won’t serve its hyperbolic purpose. It reduces the systemic nature of the problem into a simplistic kind of telemedic death porn.
Who does this kind of tactical media help? In the end, Plane Stupid. They will get lots of hits and new visitors (such as myself), thereby making the video a success for them. But does it facilitate understanding of the problem? Probably not. Though a worthy cause, in balance I’m wondering if the circus-act-as-medium is hurting the message. In the end we are left with Susan Sontag’s lament that we’ll remember the image, but not the circumstances that created it.
