Act On CO2 16 Jun 07
Chances are, if you live in the UK, you’ve seen the government sponsored Act On CO2 TV adverts, featuring little engines on wheels, driving around like cars. The purpose of the campaign is to provide advice on how to reduce the emissions from your car journeys through ‘smarter driving’ and making a more informed decision when buying a new car.
As government campaigns go, its not bad. None of the tips provided could be considered life-changing, but they are all simple little things that everyone can do to help combat climate change. Someone will always complain that the government would be better spending the money elsewhere, like the Health Service or Education, but alternatively they could have spent the money on worse things or just given themselves a pay rise.
What does confuse me though is the end of the adverts, which state “for more information, search online for ‘Act on CO2’”. I’d love to know the reason behind the decision to ask people to search for the information, rather than just supplying the actual website address.
Ok, its not a very pretty address (http://www.dft.gov.uk/ActOnCO2/) and the site does rank as number 1 in the results (or ‘SERPs’) on both Google and Yahoo for ‘Act on CO2’. What about other search engines though, for example MSN and Ask.com? In both cases the ‘correct’ site appears further down the results list (3rd and 7th respectively). Its still on the first page, but you’d already have to know which site you were looking for to find the right one amongst the sites for other government departments and even climate change skeptics.
I guess I’m just curious why, considering the amount of money that must have been spent on this campaign (including purchasing sponsored listings on both Google and Yahoo), they didn’t spend a little extra on an appropriate, memorable domain name, making it easy for everyone to find the information.
Posted by Nev in Going Green , Internet with tags adverts, car, eco-friendly, green, transport, website
