THE WATTS

BBDO New York was looking for ways to make the agency greener and one of our biggest efforts involved energy consumption. People weren’t shutting down their lights or computers at night. But how do we get a group of cynical advertising people to pay attention? We created a family of Watts that represented energy consumption. The thought was that if people could relate intangible energy with cute, cuddly creatures, they’d be less likely to waste it. After getting people to identify with the Watts, we then killed them off in horrific ways.The first step was to introduce people to the Watts. At first the Watts appeared all over the agency for one full week. But the following week people arrived to a different scene. The lovable Watts had been brutally massacred. Kill posters and videos continued throughout the week as a constant reminder to “Save a Watt,” don’t “Kill a Watt.”