Sticking it to Big Energy

With new policy rising around climate change, the media war (daresay propaganda?) escalates between big energy industrialists and next-generation proponents of renewable energy. There are those who cling desperately to the past and those who look positively toward the future. As the global oil market nears the bottom of its finite supply, it's obviously no longer a question of needing "alternative energy," but figuring out how to tap that new source. In a new clean energy sticker/poster campaign aimed at shifting the energy paradigm, graphic artist Shepard Fairey has teamed up again with MoveOn.org.

You'll recall Fairey's critically acclaimed Obama "HOPE" poster etched into the collective national consciousness during the 2008 presidential race. Shortly after Obama's victory, MoveOn.org joined ranks with Fairey for the "Yes We Did" poster release, including 3.25 million stickers of the work distributed freely to MoveOn.org patrons. For the new initiative, called Cover September in Windmills, Fairey's "Clean Energy for America" poster will be shipped by Sept. 1 so that purchasers can hang them everywhere in a graphic show of hands.

Writes Shepard of his latest creation: "I believe very strongly that green energy is the only way for the United States to achieve energy independence, create valuable technology, and protect the environment. I created this windmill image as a patriotic symbol of the green energy mission."

The cost on Fairey's Obey Giant website for, not one, but two of the posters, is $20. "We're asking everyone to not just hang one in your home," says the website, "but to hang another in a local business or any other available and legal public space you can find." Like the "Yes We Did" sticker giveaway, MoveOn.org is also offering a limited supply of 300,000 sticker replicas of the windmill poster.

Fairey's posters are a modern example of the immense power of repetitive imagery. Is it going to be enough to turn the energy industry on its head and jump start the replacement of fossil fuels with wind and solar energy in earnest? Guess we'll find out in September.

Photo courtesy of Obey Giant.