Going solar, with humor

From the NYT’s Green Blog:

In a twist on environmentally minded marketing, the resounding answer in a television ad campaign by the California-based home solar-power company Sunrun is: “We couldn’t care less whether you do or don’t. Solar panels will save you money.”

On one level, the campaign is an implicit acknowledgment that combating climate change is an intrinsically hard sell. For example, people could do the planet a big favor by eating less beef, an extremely carbon-intensive protein source. But few people want to be told, “You should eat fewer hamburgers to protect the planet for future generations.”

So Sunrun’s commercials don’t try to pat you on the back for doing the right thing. They even poke fun — affectionately — at the environmentally devout.