Here’s a story that showcases what happens when a smart idea is brought to the forefront—in this case—a Greener Baltimore—but turns out to be a prank. The purpose isn’t to “punk” the media or Baltimoreans, but instead to start a conversation about the issue at hand and urge people to begin asking the question what if???
About a month ago, Interactive Designer Galen Frazer presented Baltimore-based, marketing agency Planit’s Interactive team with an idea. “What if we were to make famous landmarks ‘green?’” Being the thought leader behind Planit’s “Planit Green” initiative, the source of such a “tree-hugger” idea came as no surprise. And it was a great one. The idea was simple, videotape famous landmarks in Baltimore, (then for the hard part) composite wind turbines into the videos to fool even the most observant eye into believing the city was making a change for the better. It wasn’t as much an idea to prank people, as it was to create “what if” conversations around the city. After a few Baltimore locations were shot with a shaky handheld camera, the decision to use the Power Plant footage for our project was all too fitting—make a coal burning historical landmark into a clean source of power.
The team, made up of Interactive Designer Nick Elizaga, Animator Alex Dippel and Galen, between billable work found time to chip away at the project. After about week’s worth of effort, the 3-D models of the turbines created by Alex were seamlessly composited into the footage by Nick. The next question to be answered was “how do we get this video out there to create a conversation?” The key was to make it seem “real” and un-staged.
The decision was made to post the video to www.visitmybaltimore.com, a local video hosting site. In an attempt to make the video viral, the video was posted by a Leo Chinsky with no mention of Planit in the video or in its video description which read, “Pretty cool vid I took of the new wind turbines at the Power Plant.” The team knew that wouldn’t be enough.
The team began posting the video on environmental blogs and sent anonymous emails to local newspapers questioning why the news hasn’t picked up on this amazing clean energy effort by the Cordish Company. Interactive Art Director, Ryan Smith’s email to Laura Vozella, a Baltimore Sun reporter was the bait that was needed to land the team its first story about the turbines.
“…the reason why I write is to see if you’ve heard anything about these new inner harbor wind turbines at the Power Plant. They’re really creating a buzz in town and now I can finally rest easy knowing that Baltimore is making a green effort finally! I’m surprised the newspapers haven’t picked up on this more. Although my footage with my cell phone isn’t that great…here’s them in action!”
Laura’s response:
“Hi. Thanks for the tip! I’ll see if we’ve written anything. If not, I’m all over it.”
Hours later, an email sent back to Ryan from the embarrassed reporter confirmed that the team was in fact successful in fooling her and others at the Baltimore Sun. Today, the Baltimore Sun wrote of the incident, and the video is now the featured video on the homepage of www.visitmybaltimore.com.
Who knows if anything else will come of this video? Maybe something a little more than just embarrassed laughs. That’s for the state to decide.
