‘A bamboo toothbrush won’t save the planet’: Twiggy enlists cult cartoon Rick and Morty to sell green hydrogen – Crikey

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We would absolutely love to know how much Andrew Forrest's Fortescue Future Industries paid for What The Green Energy, a new website spruiking green hydrogen featuring Rick and Morty.

In a combination of words that has no right to make any sense, mining billionaire Andrew Twiggy Forrest has enlisted the help of Rick and Morty to educate the public about green hydrogen. For those whove forgotten, Rick and Morty is a cult cartoon that the most irritating people imaginable made their entire personality for a few months in 2017. Fortescue Future Industries, the green energy wing of Twiggys Fortescue, has put together a website called What The Green Hydrogen, using the main characters to put forward the idea of renewables. Its, well, about as strange as it sounds, filtering the surreal, nihilistic aesthetic of the show through PR speak for example:

Before we join forces to save the planet, theres something you should know about us.

Were owned by a mining company. A really big one. Called Fortescue.

News done fearlessly. Join us today and save 50%.

It is one of the largest iron ore extractors in the world, and it is also a heavy carbon emitter.

But the planet isnt going to be saved by a bamboo toothbrush company. Its a little late for that. Our only hope is change on an industrial scale.

Predictably, the website tones down the horrific gore and relentless nihilism of the show although there is a fight scene involving a giant worm, with a great snapping head of interlocking cavernous maws, which gets decapitated (if 12-second marketing videos made by mining companies require spoiler alerts then spoiler alert, I guess). The sequence sums up the weirdness of the whole enterprise. Rick is just there, fighting a big worm in a mechanised suit, which someone has clearly had a lot of fun putting together. But aside from depicting a battle to save the planet, were not sure were making the connection to the rest of the campaign.

We would give anything to know how much the company paid for all this though we note that while theyve sprung for the image, they havent secured the voice talents of Justin Roiland (as far as we can tell), who voices both characters. We guess even Twiggy money has its limits.

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Peter FrayEditor-in-chief

Charlie Lewis

Tips and Murmurs Editor @theshufflediary

Charlie pens Crikey's daily Tips and Murmurs column and also writes on industrial relations, politics and culture. He previously worked across government and unions and was a researcher on RN's Daily Planet. He currently co-hosts Spin Cycle on Triple R radio.

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'A bamboo toothbrush won't save the planet': Twiggy enlists cult cartoon Rick and Morty to sell green hydrogen - Crikey