At Saatchi & Saatchi we’re changing color – from Green to True Blue. The shift was sparked when Adam Werbach (Adam is CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S) announced the Birth of Blue to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. The idea, in brief, is that we need to unleash the creativity and imagination of the global public if we are going to overcome the challenges our planet faces.
What does Blue mean to us as individuals? That we all have to commit, and commit quickly to leaving a smaller footprint on our planet. Even the most diehard conservative who won’t accept that polar bears are having to swim where they once walked, knows that something is changing. It may be temporary (you won’t get my vote for that one) or it may be permanent or we may have ventured past some planetary tipping point, but which ever way it plays out, most of us agree we each need to get serious, get involved and start changing. Fast.
Up to now most people have looked at the future in silos. People who were passionate about forests, oceans and the creatures we share this place with, identified as environmentalists. People and the cities they mostly live in were a problem to be lectured and criticised. I respect this purity and focus – and seeing a bird with its wings glued with viscous oil is a challenge to anyone’s sense of environmental balance – but it does not offer solutions at the scale of the challenges we face.
When I look at my granddaughter Stella, the future immediately races into the present. What can feel abstract and distant (and frankly not a priority) becomes specific and personal. I might not be there, but she will be. Stella’s ability to live in harmony with her world will be as much about her as the place she grows up in. We’ve all got to work on that new sense of harmony but I believe that if we can create a state of flow between people and the planet, we’ll get much further much faster than lecturing and criticizing each other. This is at the heart of what I call True Blue which is inspired the idea that we can make the world a better place one person at a time.
Don’t get me wrong, Green is still fundamentally important but to many people green means choosing the environment over everything else. Blue means you don’t have to choose. As Adam reminds us, “We want to keep the parts of green that have brought us change and innovation, but let go of the narrowness. Blue builds on the foundation that green has laid but lets go of its baggage”.
Without the will of the people at our backs, nothing will be achieved. Here are my first thoughts on the key differences between Green and Blue.
Next Monday I will start working through these differences and look at how Blue can help make the world a better place for everyone.
