Last night, content aside (more on that in a subsequent post) I witness two of the best presentations in my life.
Al Gore was in town with his much ballyhooed Inconvenient Truth slide show. The opening act was scientist, broadcast icon and planet champion Dr. David Suzuki.
The are two men with very differing lives and motivations but one common interest. And a very complicated on at that, saving our planet.
Dr. Suzuki is one of the world's most outspoken leaders in the scientific community on climate change. And has been for decades.
Al as we all know comes from politics and policy.
Each spoke with incredible conviction on the issue from their perspective out of their core knowledge base (science for Suzuki and policy for Gore) and brought to life the fact of a very complicated issue and debate in clear language with fantastic use of visuals.
Most presentations one attends, the speakers have an underlying self serving agenda, be it the fee they were paid, an objective like getting voted into office or trying to sell you something. That was not the case for either speaker. They were straightforward, honest, and factual. They we speaking for what is in our best interests. And that honest came through in their conviction and some well timed humour by each avoided it feeling like a preach in.
As advertising professionals, we all know all to well and undoubtedly have seen and even been victims of trying to over rationalize or sell a point. Be it through complex logic chains, heavy rational or fancy buzzwords. And we see the desire for better ways to present, well. At the end of the day, simple facts presented well, with the right intentions succeed. Quite simply they play to our common sense.
More on the actual content to come in subsequent posts.
In case you are wondering who previous were my top presentations - its a tie between Kareem Abdul Jabar on life as a black man gowing up in harlem and Jean Bertrand Arastide during one of his exiles on the importance of personal connections in a community to endure peace.
Here's a little taste of Dr. Suzuki:
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