Energy Savings Gets the RPG Treatment
The Ad Council and the US Department of Energy are using a new ad effort to build a new "energy ethic" for tweens. The campaign's called "What's your excuse?" and was created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.
LoseYourExcuse.gov is stocked with tips for saving energy, desktop background downloads and the like. I really love the game, though. Been playing it all afternoon.
In an environment that brings Prince of Persia to mind, your job is to rescue energy from counterproductive villains that say things like "Programming thermostats is a drag." Once you've absorbed the contents of each power pod, make a mad dash for the exit.
At the end of every level, you're told how much you've rescued so far. You also get random tips for saving energy in real life.
Last month I read a Wired article about how Weight Watchers turns weight loss into an RPG game. I like the idea of teaching kids how to save energy the same way. The game at LoseYourExcuse.gov kinda moves in that direction. Press Play on the homepage to try it.
Comments
Nice find. Gonna get my 7 year old playing it to see if she will learn to turn off the damm lights in her room when she comes downstairs - current threats not working. If works on 7 year old, will introduce game to the Mrs. to see if she can learn to turn off lights as well. This might actually save me some money!
Heard from a fellow worker bee that the campaign is from Goodby, but the site is from the nice folks over at IQ Interactive.
Games pretty sweet, but i can't seem to get past level 4. Guess i need to be 12.
Worker bee: oddly, I couldn't get past 4 either. Gave up and had an angry nap.