Of Gandhigiri and Green Lion, Al Gore wins hearts at Cannes
June 23, 07
Kalyan Kar
Former US Vice-President Al Gore rounded up the day’s proceedings on Friday evening to a packed house at the Cannes Lions. He was invited to address the international advertising community at a seminar organised by Y&R on the Climate Crisis facing the planet. And Gore turned out to be a communicator par excellence – he was heard in rapt silence. At the end of the seminar, he was roundly applauded as he became the recipient of the first ever Green Cannes Lion.
Introduced by Hamish McLennan, Global CEO, Y&R, Gore spoke passionately about the man-made climatic crisis facing earth. He spoke with passion about the Live Earth project to save it from a climatic disaster, the need to reach out with the message to people around the globe, about the difficult questions future generations would ask of today’s generation and their lack of responsibility in not taking steps when there was still time.
Gore relied heavily on Gandhi’s philosophy of satyagraha. “Mahatma Ganghi’s philosophy of satyagraha can be translated to mean truth force. It is this truth force which can help us to fight this battle honestly and with people’s participation”, he said.
He asserted that the First World countries could nor win this battle without India and China being equal partners at every step of the way. “To ensure that politicians across the globe wake up to the climatic threat we have to generate public opinion, we have to ensure that we as individuals create the pressure of public opinion. This is where the creative talents of advertising professionals play a major role in creating public opinion and awareness at the people lever,” he said.