The problem with this approach is that it's too obviously preachy. When some tough cigar-smoking macho cowboy steps into a Prius instead of a Hummer onscreen, people's BS meters go off and they feel like they're being force-fed a message.

I think it would be hard to subtly work in images of wind farms or solar collectors into mainstream Hollywood movies. And besides, most people don't really care about energy or how it's produced...they're only interested in what they can do with it. If you can design energy-efficient products that are so cool that everyone wants one, and you happen to show some of those products in movies, that might help increase their use. But I think that strategy would work better for efficient cars than, say, efficient refrigerators.

The way I see it, there are three options for increase the use of renewables and energy-efficient equipment: 1) make it cool, so people want to use it (this is why more people buy Priuses than hybrid Civics); 2) make it cheaper so people buy it on the basis of price (this is why more people buy regular cars than hybrids); 3) make it the only option available (which requires standards or regulation).

The problem with this approach is that it's too obviously preachy. When some tough cigar-smoking macho cowboy steps into a Prius instead of a Hummer onscreen, people's BS meters go off and they feel like they're being force-fed a message.

Which is why you don't do that.

I think it would be hard to subtly work in images of wind farms or solar collectors into mainstream Hollywood movies.

I disagree. And if I were a big shot movie producer with millions to spend, I'd prove it. But seriously, I'd like to see someone try. It worked in Sky Blue (granted it wouldn't qualify as a "mainstream Hollywood movie").

And besides, most people don't really care about energy or how it's produced...they're only interested in what they can do with it.

Well, according to the research conducted by the folks over at SmartPower, it sounds like one of the issues is that people are aware of renewable energy options, but they don't they that they work. As I quoted above:

The question has been befuddling everyone from environmental activists to utility executives. Nearly every American, it seems, understands that generating electricity from the sun, the wind, the earth's heat, or gases generated by rotting waste is good news for everyone -- the planet, people's health, national security, and the economy.

So, what's the problem? They just don't think clean energy works.

...

"No one's talking about it on television," was another comment Keane recalls hearing. "They could actually live with the fact that no one in their neighborhood has a solar panel. But if they saw it was on TV, they could understand it's potential. TV is the great validator of the day."

For any script writers out there, here's a suggestion: Have your main character be a solar panel or windmill tech. No need to go on about why solar or wind power is a good thing. Just show it in action as a back story. Something like: So-and-so was a well-liked solar panel technician in a quiet, small town. Everything was great in the world, until so-and-so's best friend was murdered. Ok, I'll stop there as I've got Daily Grist to publish and send.

So, hey Gristmillians, you got any ideas of your own?

Also over at WC: Micki Krimmel writes about film, marketing and the environmental movement.

...addressing bhurley's comment that

When some tough cigar-smoking macho cowboy steps into a Prius instead of a Hummer onscreen, people's BS meters go off and they feel like they're being force-fed a message.

Agreed.  I think we all can recall some or other "very special episode" of a tv drama or comedy where we knew we were being fed a morally superior line to salve the writer's social conscience.  If a plot turn isn't character-driven, it's going to seem fakey and unconvincing.  Or worse, satirical and disempowering (big burley guy with a poodle, or a Prius..although Toyota will have hybrid pickups some time in the next several years, right?).

I think the key here is not to think in terms of strident activism, of "telling people what they ought to know," and allow for the eco ideas to populate the background details of a show.  Maybe a character drinks organic coffee.  Maybe she and her friend have a walk-and-talk on their way to the newspaper recycling bin.

There might also be green ideas that could be worked into shows in character-driven ways.  Like, say one of the Desperate Housewives starts a garden, and then starts collecting fruit scraps for compost, and gets some kind of satisfaction from her gorgeous organic tomatoes that offsets her ennui.  Or her child's hyperactivity disorder is addressed by getting the kid out into nature.

Emily Gertz Journalist & Editor egertz AT oneatlantic DOT net http://www.apartmentecology.com/

There's a tiny NGO in Boston called "Second Nature" which used to describe its mission as working to make environmentally sustainable behavior second nature--something that people don't even think about because it is so deeply ingrained in them. I've always liked that concept.