IBM Loosens Tie, Courts Granola-Chewing Tree Huggers

Commercials for IBM's "Go Green" campaign are all over my daytime TV. In the ones I've seen, corporate suits debate the merits of implementing energy-efficient policies. Once they opt to "go green" (usually for financial reasons), a cartoon forest -- complete with cheerful chirping wildlife and a high-pitched chorus -- blossoms around them. The message is that companies going green, whatever the reason, can change the environment for the better.

Style-wise, the effort mirrors a current Truth campaign where reality is also shattered by musical kitsch and doe-eyed cartoons. (Both are liable to make jaded cubicle cogs long for a vatful of hot smoking Dip.)

See more "green" IBM ads on YouTube: Green Data Center Man and The Green Enforcer. I think of them as a brave but clumsy attempt to shake off IBM's stodgy demeanor, though the work lacks a unique personality and leans hard on familiar gimmicks: inventing mediocre superheros (think The Incredibles), and smashing reality with cloying and invasive cartoon pastiches. (Like Roger Rabbit.)

For a brand as old (and resource-intensive) as IBM's, though, it's a shaky step in a good direction.