My Family Project, BurgBarnBuri

By Thirasak Tanapatanakul on May 15, 2012

Creative people, here is a message from my family to you.

One day my 4-year-old son screamed like crazy when he wanted the latest smart phone and I ignored his request.

And you know what I have realized?

It was because of creative people like me. It was because of creative people like us. As we all know, our job is to stimulate people to consume. Even if it’s something they don’t really need. We are now living in a world of over-consumption.

That is why my wife and I created “My Family Project”, BurgBarnBuri. Five acres dedicated to the principle of self-sufficient living to help people to realize what they need in life and what they don’t.

Quite simply, my intention was to share this message with all of you, the leading influencers of the world’s communications. My wish is to have advertising people help communicate this issue and start doing something.

Unlike other projects, this project has no result. The result is up to you to imagine what our world should be like when the next generation grows up. So if you guys are thinking about doing something, I’m sure you can do it even better than I can.

I’m still creating advertising but with the belief that if I am someone who partly made this world worse, I can also be someone who can make this world better.

I keep talking and spreading this message to creative people whenever I get an invitation to speak at local and international conferences. During my talk there are some common questions from audiences:
“Are you a walking contradiction in the context of your career and how do you implement it at your office?”

Frankly speaking, it’s very challenging to promote ethical and responsible consumerism. However, I believe people will change their attitude and behavior on two occasions. First, when there is a crisis that affects their lives such as severe natural disaster. The second is when they are happier when they change.

At our office, we started with internal campaign to make our staff happier with responsible consumption. We have done some simple programs such as delicious organic cooking workshops, growing organic rice and vegetables on the office balcony, creative camping retreats, no waste projects, green New Year gifts, green agency business cards and more.

We extend our effort to our clients by inviting them to join our programs. We discuss the possibility of developing their communication campaigns to raise consumer awareness on responsible consumption. We had a client who decided to budget for an “Unplugged Family Program,” that brought their dealers’ families to join activities at organic farm, instead of a shopping trip aboard. Our client was very happy with the results because they could better strengthen their relationship with their dealers. Even though it is not initially easy to convince people, I believe with practice it does get easier to do so.

It is my belief advertising people like us can be the significant part of making this world better.

Also, Advertising can be a Force for Good.

Check out BurgBarnBuri at: http://www.burgbarnburi.com

Thirasak Tanapatanakul is Worldwide Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Creative Juice\Bangkok
 

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