Apple’s Mother Nature ad. Based on a true story.
As many of you will have noticed, Apple launched an ad last week in which Mother Nature attended their board meeting.
Sound familiar? Judging by my swollen inbox, it must sound very familiar to anyone who’s been following the Nature on the Board story.
And in some ways, perhaps, it’s a useful tool I can use to describe what Nature on the Board is, and in many more ways, what Nature on the Board is not. Because one of the challenges we face with the idea is how it is understood by everyone outside of Faith In Nature’s own boardroom.
Firstly, here’s a recap of what Faith In Nature did a year ago.
And here’s a recap of Apple’s latest ad:
Having spent nearly 20 years in ad agencies — it’s convenient that the language chosen to dramatise Nature on the Board is one I speak fluently. It’s also a reminder of why we did what we did at Faith In Nature. We had already written an ad with the same underlying idea in it, long before we appointed Nature to our board of directors. It’s this:
Yes, it’s a totally different execution. And yes, it was produced on a comparative shoestring. But the underlying idea is the same. The point is though that simply stopping at an ad makes it just that — an ad. Without taking it further into the realms of real legal change, it’s nothing more.
So let’s break it down. What’s similar? (Spoiler: not much.) And what’s different? (Spoiler: quite a lot.)
The similarities
- The funniest, truest, similarity is that, actually, this board meeting reminds me of Faith In Nature’s first ever board meeting with Nature present. It was, by far, the worst board meeting I’ve ever attended. That sense of feeling exposed, or being judged, is real. To have somebody, embodying Nature, sit opposite and take a no-bullshit view of your actions feels, initially, scary. And so, to over-correct, you desperately point to all the good things you’ve ever done. A plea: “Please love us. We’re a good company! We’re good people!” And, in the back of your mind, a darker worry that you have voluntarily walked the entire company into a Roman amphitheatre, ready to be torn apart but for the emperor’s mercy. The result, obviously, is a quite chaotic first encounter.
- Nature is also embodied as a human. That’s actually quite helpful in some ways because some of the more sceptical voices say things like ‘So, what… is your new director a tree? Or a snake?!’ And the answer is, well, yes. Sort of. But represented by a human. Because the legal entity appointed to Faith In Nature’s board is non-human and encompasses all beings (trees and snakes included). But Nature’s guardian (the voice through which Nature speaks) is, right now, human.
- Perhaps the biggest similarity, albeit only alluded to in a slightly comedic way, is that Nature is acknowledged as a stakeholder. This ad does acknowledge that there is this greater presence ‘in the room’ as we go about our business. That what we do genuinely impacts something much more precious than profits.
- And aside from that, the only other similarities are the obvious ‘board meeting’ tropes: a table, in an office, around which sit a (presumably) privileged bunch of people making decisions that impact the wider natural world from which they have cut themselves off, where it’s easier to pretend this isn’t the case.
The differences
- To spell this out, and to be clear, the biggest and most important difference to recognise here is that this is just an ad. It is a dramatisation of an idea that has genuinely been implemented elsewhere, but without any of the legal, corporate, or structural changes that underpin the idea. It is a piece of theatre that nods towards the Rights of Nature without actually doing what the movement needs which is to recognise those rights with genuine legal change. To say you work for Mother Nature without actually making the legal changes to your company’s constitution to make that claim true is… not true.
- While there was some anxiety and a desire to please in that first board meeting — by the time the second meeting rolled around, and we’d all spent much more time with Nature’s guardians, those feelings dissipated, exactly as we knew they would. The reality is that we’d already been on an 18 month incubation period to make this real so were, of course, confident in our move. All feelings of nerves, of vulnerability, of exposure were really just monkey mind nonsense and chatter. The beauty in Nature on the Board is that Nature doesn’t just leave after the first meeting. Nature stays. Nature listens. Nature shares. Nature’s guardians work to understand our challenges and our needs so that Nature can better understand how we might be impacting the natural world, give a Nature first view, and then steer us towards better, more Nature positive decisions. This is not a one night stand, or an annual fling, but the entering into of a deep and meaningful relationship.
- While a desire to please is normal, it is also fundamentally flawed. And the reason it is flawed is because it assumes an element of judgement. The truth is, Nature on the Board is not about judging or being judged. It is about opening up a dialogue, and starting a new way of interrelating. Nature, or its guardians, are free to judge us — but to what end? Nature on the Board is a tool for making better informed decisions that take the natural world into account. There is an acknowledgement within the idea that we are, obviously, not perfect. None of us is. So it’s about working together to be better going forward. As I’ve previously mentioned, Nature does not sit on our board as some authoritarian green police force. Nature sits on our board as a guide, an ally and a legally recognised stakeholder.
- Apple’s ad also muddies the water between having Nature on the board and having a Sustainability Director on the board. Because while Octavia Spencer is referred to as Mother Nature, if you removed that conceit, you could just as well be listening to a board report back to its Sustainability Director. Yes, Nature on the Board is concerned with carbon footprints and targets and all the stuff sustainability people speak of. But the bigger point is that Nature is there to input on all decisions and aspects of the business, bringing an ecocentric lens to an otherwise anthropocentric business world. Nature, in our case, speaks of so much more. Nature speaks of imagination, of a rights discourse, of systems change, of ways of seeing and being that are not only measured, but felt.
- And while I say that Mother Nature’s embodiment in a human is similar to ours, it is also very different. We are not saying our Nature guardians are Nature (although they are, of course, a part of Nature). We’re saying they’re guardians of Nature, working in Nature’s best interests. In that sense, the people we appoint must bring some great expertise and insight into an aspect of natural world that is simply not present in a company’s boardroom. And as we refine the process, the people coming forward to represent Nature are incredible. From environmental lawyers to conservationists to zoologists to wisdom keepers — the one thing they all bring is integrity and a Nature first view of the world. By contrast, what we see with Apple’s embodiment of Mother Nature is really just a creative treatment. Octavia Spencer has been cast, presumably, because she’s a wonderful actor and because she’s famous — exactly as I’d expect from an Apple ad. But it is theatre. Just as is Guillame Delaunay’s embodiment of ‘the wind’ in this, my favourite ad ever…
- There is a difference too in language. While Apple speak of Mother Nature, we (Faith In Nature) speak only of Nature. This is really a question of personal preference, cultural heritage etc. At Faith In Nature, it’s a conscious choice to speak only of Nature as my feeling is that within the UK, it’s a more approachable, less loaded choice of name. We all bring our understandings of what Nature is and we prefer to leave that open ended. If somebody takes that to mean Mother Nature, great! But if somebody is less comfortable with that language, we’d prefer not to put up another barrier between them and the natural world. It is also our conscious choice (and not just a grammatical error!) to capitalise the N in Nature. To us, that signifies respect in much the same way that referring to Mother Nature does, but in a subtler, more everyday way.
- And then there is the really, really obvious difference that this depiction of Nature on the Board is trying to flog another Apple phone. And that’s fine — that’s what ads are for. But Nature on the Board itself is not in itself trying to sell anything. It’s trying to fix a business culture of riding roughshod over the interests of the natural world. And, yes, it is in the interest of the move for the companies that adopt it to be commercially successful — but if they are, it will be because they’re great companies, selling great products, in an ethical way that customers recognise as being critical to the future health of our planet.
On reflection…
An environmental lawyer very close to Nature on the Board referred to Apple’s ad as “the worst thing that could possibly have happened to the movement”. I understand their disappointment and their frustration that their brilliant, heart-felt, integrity-loaded, work to integrate the Rights of Nature into the business landscape should be presented as a caricature without any underlying legal change whatsoever. But the ad guy in me also disagrees.
Perhaps it is because I did not devote my career to justice, or to meaningful change (that all came later). I still really, really love ads. I love the craft, the creativity, the production, the performance. I love the curiosity of people in ad-land. I love that they take inspiration from anywhere and everywhere. They surface what is interesting, culturally sticky or beautiful. And yes, they then twist those things into ways of selling stuff. But, well, that’s the game.
I’d prefer to take this in the spirit it’s probably (possibly even unconsciously!) intended. It’s proof that the conversation we started has spread to the ears of Tim Cook and Octavia Spencer. And, now, to millions more people too.
And as with Octavia Spencer’s Hidden Figures, perhaps that’s enough. Without Hidden Figures, I’d never have known there was a true story upon which to base the movie. Perhaps the fairest thing to say about the Apple ad is that it too is Based On A True Story. But that doesn’t mean it is the true story. And, as is so often the case, the true story is so much more interesting than the Hollywood treatment.
One last note…
Apple, if you’re reading this, please get in touch with us. I’d love to speak with you about this, as too would Lawyers for Nature who can go one better and actually make this a reality for you. Who knows, perhaps when Mother Nature returns to your board in a year you can tell her you’ve given her an actual voice and a vote.
