The national oil and gas conglomerate PTT Public Company Limited, in collaboration with Salmon House, a creative video production company, launched a new television commercial aimed at encouraging the public to consume less energy.
Thai audiences are already familiar with heroic messages about saving energy to help the nation and express solidarity. However, the new commercial, entitled “Saab Laew Plian” (‘understand and change’), pushes an alternative behaviour change with the key message to save energy for one’s own sake.
The commercial features a man who has to spend a night alone. Because he’s afraid of ghosts, he turns on all the lights in the house. Out of the blue, a ghost appears and starts to lecture him about the bad effects of sleeping with the lights on and disadvantages of electricity overconsumption. Then another ghost comes onto the scene, this time venting about how the man drives too fast and wastes too much gasoline.
The whole scene is performed in a comical, friendly way with sarcastic jokes between the lines. The two ghosts suggest catchy strategies to ‘turn off the light, turn down the AC temperature, pull out plugs, and turn to no. 5 electrical appliances’ as well as to ‘check the car, check the itinerary, and choose public transport’. They stress that everyone should save for themselves and in a meaningful way, not to the extreme extent that cause difficulties.
Addressing the concept behind the commercial, Prof. Dr. Pisut Painmanakul, Board of National Strategy and Secretary to the Minister of Energy, says, “Everyone understands nowadays that every person has different levels of resourcefulness and demands for convenience. So, saving energy can’t be the same for everyone. The easiest nudge is to think for yourself. If you change your behaviours, even in only a small way, you’ll reap the benefits, and it’s also good for others and the environment. It says in the commercial that you can save up to 10%, and a 5-10% energy reduction would save Thailand hundreds of millions of baht.”
“This campaign is principally about raising awareness,” Prof. Dr. Pisut concludes. “Whether or not it actually makes you change, at least you now know the importance of energy saving.”
You can watch the commercial at https://youtu.be/QekCyqDq7Es.
