New Carrotmob Animation
It’s a gripping story of 2 star-crossed lovers. John is a humdrum everyman who thinks he knows everything, and is perfectly content going to work every day and making money. He never knew the dolphins, never knew the butterflies, and most of all, never had a reason to care….UNTIL SHE CAME ALONG. Susie’s a hip sassy girl out to save the world. She thinks she has a handle on how to make the world a better place…UNTIL HE COMES ALONG. John is impervious to her usual tricks….protesting, petitioning, legislating, nothing seems to work. But then comes a shocking twist that will leave you riveted to your chair! Susie finally comes up with a way to get John’s attention and the fireworks that ensue teach both characters profound lessons about life and love. A smart romantic comedy, this animation is a delight for children and adults alike!
Hahaha. I don’t know why I wrote that. There’s not really romance in it, but maybe we’ll put a love story in the sequel. So check it out and let us know what you think. I (Brent) wrote up the idea for it, and then handed it over to an awesome animator named Allan Dye who made it happen. Thanks also to Dave Isen and HORSE the Band for letting us use their music for the finale for free.
So let’s have some feedback on this thing, eh?
How Organized Consumer Purchasing Can Change Business from carrotmob on Vimeo.
Strengths:
Cute/cuddly/fun/positive Explains why Carrotmob can be more effective than traditional activism Not a word is spoken, so it works in any language (we can later edit the last screen to make translated versions). Short enough that most viewers will probably not get bored.
Weaknesses:
Doesn’t explicitly make it clear that people are buying products. It might look like we’re asking people to donate money just to pay for companies to clean up their own messes, when that’s not really the case. Doesn’t show an example of businesses competing to see who can be more socially responsible and win the carrot. This is something I initially wrote into the script, but it would have made the thing too long and expensive to animate. Does it work without the competition element?
Let us know what you think in the comments!
Brent, just viewed the video. I absolutely love it as it is. Hat’s off to you and Allan. The message comes through crystal clear, with great humor; words are completely unnecessary. As long as there are links to more information in (eventually) a number of common languages, people can get the rest of the picture.
I like it a lot! I would work on the buying products issue, understanding than you need donations for this to work is a big problem. Also I will change the ending may be too cheese :) But very good work! congratz and go Carrot Mob!
LOL! I loved it. It made me laugh. It’s so cheesy it’s cute! I understood the entire skit because I’ve done a lot of research about eco-issues and I’m familiar with your group. Can’t really speak for those who are less informed.
Looks lovely, the animations great even if, as you say, it looks more like charity to make businesses cleaner. And nice-looking site in general… but is this a business or a movement? Is this an advert or a community? It strikes me that you’re concentrating on making everything shiny and nice, but by the time you get around to “adding the social networking stuff”, the party will be well and truly over.
Face it, Carrotmob is a fad. Ride the wave, then think of something new. Be fast, not flashy.
I liked the video. Good job there. On the other hand I hate pages that are done by flash or have big areas done by flash. I think the website would be better if the idea behind carrotmob was explained by a written word on the front page and then the video was on a much smaller size somewhere on the page and/or the link to the big video was provided.
IMHO that way the page would look more professional, and it wouldn’t matter on what system the viewer was browsing the site, s/he would still get the info. Of course the text should be well written so that people could quickly grasp the idea.
just my 2 cents.
I like the video! I especially like that it is all animation and easy to understand. I echo the comments that you guys need to express that the mob is buying goodies they would normally buy from the Suit-machine man. Maybe he can hand them goodies in exchange for the coins? Or, maybe everyone can walk up and receive a different goodie when they toss a coin in?
Either way it is a great video! Well done.
Just learned about carrotmob for the first time roughly 15 minutes ago. incredible idea. got to the website, saw the animation, laughed, and then read all the FAQs. I still think its a cute animation but now that I understand exactly how carrotmob works I’m not sure the animation really explains it. but it’s awfully cute. this is really quite something (i’m going to go tell everyone i know!)
Thanks for the feedback everyone! Sounds like the animation would do a bad job of explaining how a Carrotmob actually works if we relied upon it to do that, but if we rely upon it to explain WHY a Carrotmob works, or if we rely on it to get people interested in finding out more, I think it works well.
Good point that it would be good to get some more “purchasing” going on in this animation. Don’t think we’ll realistically make many changes right now since it’s rather expensive and time-consuming to change an animation like this. But we’ll keep brainstorming for whenever it becomes time to make a new one…
@Jonathan: “Is this a business or a movement?” Sounds like a pretty loaded question. It’s both. It’s a movement primarily, and it is sustained and improved by having a business managing it. The business makes the movement bigger, and the movement makes the business bigger. But so far Virgance hasn’t made a dime from Carrotmob, so I suppose you could say it’s pretty much all movement for now. You seem pretty pessimistic about the whole thing don’t you? It sounds like you’re encouraging us, but also hoping we fail. It also sounds like you’ve lost a bit of faith since you don’t yet see “the social networking stuff”. Well I might remind you that the global economy has collapsed recently, and that has consequences. But we are moving steadily towards the same goal as always, so sit tight and hopefully we can give you a reason to turn that frown upside down.
@Matt: Duly noted, thanks!
Bonjour,
I own a Social Marketing Agency in Montréal, Canada.
We absolutely loveyour introduction video.
So much that we would like to put it on our web site.
Can we get the permission to use it?
We would give the credits to whomever…
Thanking you for your help,
Pierre
Hi Pierre,
You may certainly put the video on your own site…underneath the video on the front page is a link that says “about this video”…if you click that you’ll see links to versions of the video on vimeo and youtube which you can embed.
Thanks,
Brent
I just learned about this group through the yahoo news portal. I thought at first, “what a great idea, activism without conflict” But I have to admit, I am a bit skeptical. I am sure there are many examples of change being made in a non-confrontational manner, trouble is, I just can’t think of any off the top of my head. If you incorporate historical examples of non-confrontational change, it might be better to win over more consumer activists.
I do think that there is an actual boycott involved in that the liquor stores that pledged 17% as opposed to 22% will not be getting the bucks, unless you are buying stuff from the “winner” that you would have not bought otherwise. I also wonder whether you may inadvertantly be hurting businesses that are otherwise more ethical than you realize. Unless the money that you bring in for the store is actually paying for the green “makeover” entirely, you might find that the store that “won” is paying their workers less which is why they can bid higher. I may be misunderstanding what the auction and the agreement entails. I just watched the video and read the article, so maybe there is more to it. I also wonder whether consumers are just basically paying for the changes, in which case why not make the businesses cooperatives or start your own?
[...] das Unternehmen ihre Art zu wirtschaften ändern, wird anschaulich im folgenden Video von carrotmob.org illustiert. [...]
Good Morning, Gentleman.
We really liked the animation and we want to have sex with it. It is, indeed, very funny, as described in the “strengths”-section.
The weaknesses that you listed are, in our opinion, too harsh.
Of course, neither of the both things you listed up are in the animation itself, but both are made pretty clear in the last screen. Even though it is in english the most people will understand it, either by just having learned english or being helped by a friend or a national community where everything is explained in their native language.
Niklas and Kjeld
Greetings from the beautyfull island Sylt, Germany.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
in my opinion is the economy more important then the nature.We have to support the industry and commerce because environmental subsidies
are not good for our prosperity and the people in western Europe don’t notice consequences in the next 100 years….
Dear Carrotmob-Team,
we just wanted to leave you a comment on the new animation.
We like the way it tells about the carrotmob, because its a funny and short way to explain. We also like, that it is totally easy to understand and that there are no words spoken. Everything is explained by these cute people, who are amuse the viewer.
But maybe you should make the clip a minute longer and show, that the customers are actually buying things at a store, because it seems like they are only donating money for environmental upgrades.
But nonetheless we like it and hope you will success with it.
Sincerly Malte & Felix
we really liked the animation but i guess it shows the world and the economy in a really black-eyed way.
the big weakness of the animation is that it isn’t shown that you have to buy the companies products. you dont only spend money to the company.
Hey Brent!
I really liked the Video! And the Idea of the Carrotmobs themselve!
I heard the first time about it in School!
I think the Video is great and also shows the serious core of the Carrotmob idea. But it’s not good that the Video doesn’t show that the
Costumers have to buy stuff, which they would buy anyway, and not spent some money.
If I wouldn’t knew anything about Carrotmobs I would also missunderstand it.
That’s the only thing I’ve really complan about the Video.
If you could change that it would be a great video! Good Job, though!
Greets from Germany!
The animations great, but it looks more like charity to make businesses cleaner. On the other hand we think that it doesn’t show clearly how a Carrotmob works. The text on the top of the page doesn’t make much sense, because the video explains everything. One good thing is that it is in english the most people will understand it, either by just having learned english or being helped by a friend or a national community where everything is explained in their native language. The animation shows that the nature is more important than the industries really good. But maybe you should make the clip a minute longer and show, that the customers are actually buying things at a store, because it seems like they are only donating money for environmental upgrades.
Justine&Jessy
Hello Brent,
we like your video very much. Your presentation of the problem is excellent. You showed us how the capitalists harm our environment. we have to do something against that problem. All the people who do not know how to help the environment know what to do now. We have to come together and put the politicans on our site. But your video has a weakness. Normally you do not denabe your money, you buy things for it and the boss of the factory spends it for new innovation.
with regards
Marc-Kevin and Aleksandr