Right message, wrong context

Posted by: Dr Ashley Tan on: March 1, 2018

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Playing Pokémon Go makes me discover new places. The things I find are not always gems, but they often provoke thought. Take this mural for instance.
 

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Right message, wrong context #mural #hdb #heartland

A post shared by Dr Ashley Tan (@drashleytan) on Feb 27, 2018 at 11:28pm PST

The message in text form, while dated, was about taking personal responsibility for the environment. Hence the recommendations to set air-conditioners to no lower than 25 degrees Celsius, to use fans, or energy-saving lightbulbs.

However, there are at least two problems with the mural.

1. Compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) are not as efficient as LEDs. CFLs also contain mercury, which makes their disposal problematic.
2. The characters in the mural are using the air-conditioner, fan, and light outdoors.

Giving the mural creator(s) the benefit of creative license, the message was probably that we enact the foreground message for the sake of the background environment.

However, doing that gives the mural creator(s) too much credit. Creative thought needs to be balanced with critical analysis — it does not make sense use those tools outdoors.

You can share exactly the same message of change in different contexts. It will make sense and be welcome in some, but not in others. Far better to find out as much as possible about the context first than to deliver a consistent but blind or outdated message.

Tags: context, message