Gods of Advertising

Hello Sunshine!

My office of gyro San Francisco teamed up with the California Coastal Commission in creating a campaign to get people to ‘check the coast’ on their tax forms in order to help preserve the Cali coast in all its glory.

The creative idea is simple enough. Take a selfie with a hand check relating to the coast and post it wherever you post stuff, and include #CheckTheCoast and CheckTheCoast.org Then, if you are so inclined, at tax time check the appropriate box on the CA form asking for a donation. After that you can hit the beach or wherever your favorite spot by the water is -knowing you did something to help keep it that way.

To help get this thing going we enlisted actor Adrian Grenier (Entourage) and surfer-activist, Sunshine in the Fog to lend their comely selfies to the cause. They graciously accepted. As did our photographer from Wedge Creative.

Looking good, Mr. Grenier!

This is (sea) grass roots stuff. Right now it’s mostly just us populating the sites but with billboards going up all over California we’re hoping for more participation in the social piece and ultimately some cash love on the tax form. In addition to the obvious benefit of donations, if enough folks check the coast on their CA tax forms the box will appear on it next year, which is a major victory as well.

What I like about this campaign is how positive it is. Absent are images of the goo-infested birds washing up in the East Bay. Or the scary amount of emaciated sea lion pups beaching themselves near Point Reyes. No tangled fishing lines or plastic rings. No dead fish. That crap is happening and we all know it. Yet, we decided to eschew the appeal of grim reality in favor of a more upbeat approach, one that asked little from its participants: merely a selfie and a buck or two.

Here literally are the instructions –as if anyone needed them- for taking your selfie:

– Left hand out

– Location doesn’t matter

– Copy and paste the following into your favorite social network

– Don’t forget to smile

– Add #CheckTheCoast and CheckTheCoast.org

On behalf of the California Coastal Commission and gyro San Francisco, we thank you for your support.