((*article pitched to Remix magazine (glossy, saturated with half-naked models & innuendo ). The editor loved it, and the finished article, but the producer baulked at last minute, claiming “ethically I can’t promote porn”. Saga lasted 6 months, printed up later in 3D World instead. ))
Half of our once standing forests have already been lost. And they continue to tumble, compounding the actual terrors of climate change and accelerating species extinction. Media-savvy eco-activists have been telling us this for decades, but we get easily distracted. However, not many environmentalists have public relations strategies like Tommy Hol Ellingsen and Leona Johansson of fuckforforest.com.
When they sang of good Norwegian Wood, it’s fair to presume Northern European eco-porn wasn’t what the Beatles had in mind. For Tommy (28) & Leona (22) however, raising awareness of Norway’s forests seemed best accomplished by putting their own naked Norwegian flesh online. Initially funded by a Norwegian Government grant to set up a ‘web-shop for raising environmental funds’, they soon changed tack and decided that redirecting just a fraction of the global porn dollar towards environmental groups, would surely benefit the environment.
“It is time to pay respect, and give something back,” explains Leona, who edits as well as stars on the site, “We believe it’s possible to use people’s need for sexuality as a way to raise money for nature and create interest for preserving our forests .” And so, inspired by ‘a twisted world’, ‘alternative religion’ and ‘crazy media manipulation’ – FFF was born. Paid up FFF members can browse though an abundance of explicit photos and videos of the duo ‘celebrating nature’ in the bedroom or the forest. These attractions are found nestled amongst diary entries, party pictures, deforestation statistics and cheesy eco-graphics that are worth the click alone – try Leona photoshopped topless beside Amazonian indians in a logged forest, or cartoon sperms with Indian head dresses for starters. Aside from the brain-jolting imagery, FFF also heavily encourages on-site participation with live chatting facilities, the chance to tune into their live action webcams and requests for amateur photographic donations from audience members – ‘Angry? Horny? You can be a model for fuck for forest. Amateurs and professionals alike – anybody is welcome to contact us. Pay respect to nature and give back from the gift of sexuality that has been given to you’. There’s even a ‘Porn Aid’ outreach program for those in the porn industry who’d like to recycle their work ‘for nature’.
While sex as a marketing tool isn’t new by any means, even for activists, the web is a great facilitator for campaigners who want to give more of themselves to further their cause. Animal Rights activists have long understood that an attractive naked body in say an anti-fur protest will guarantee interest, and while they might debate the use of it passionately, alternative mediamakers similarly anticipate higher sales for calendars of magazines with attractive alt_models adorning the front covers. Websiders of course, are much less timid about the co-celebration of sexuality and campaign issues. Sites to bookmark alongside FFF for the discerning and compassionate porn viewer include the ‘titillating tofu eaters’ at www.vegporn.com ( curious about the ethics of latex condoms? ), a ‘vegan-run non-nude fetish site for the female foot connoisseur’ at www.toes-in-action.com, or veganporn.com – which is in fact not a porn site, but attempting to ‘convert porn surfers to vegan’ and now up to #11 in the google rankings.
Fuck For Forest are clearly market-leaders in the eco-porn arena though, and after six months into the game, Tommy & Leona have gathered over 1,000 members, substantial daily traffic, and over US$60,000. Mixing politics and desire has proven more slippery than they expected however, as they discovered when trying to donate their fundraising efforts to the Norwegian Rainforest Foundation and the WWF, both refusing to accept their donations. Undoubtedly the need for larger environmental organisations to appeal to a large range of middle class citizens, clashed with the threat of association to porn. A disappointed but vigilant Leona explains:
“We really do not understand. Are moral values more important that natural values? We are shocked, and sad. But we will not give up that easily. The Norwegian nature organizations have been publically negative to our organization. They do not have to like it, just accept that some people will go further to try to save nature. And that money is important even if fucked for!”
If the Fuck For Forest campaign flounders, it won’t be for lack of ‘imaginative’ public relations strategies. Many came across FFF after they had sex on stage at a Norwegian festival, something they’d arranged with a band called ‘The Cumshots’ as an effort to ‘get attention to the destroying of nature and our attempt to prevent this’. Leona claimed that worked and notes they have been contacted by an American documentary maker who wanted to make something on them going to Brazil and giving the money to an ‘Indian tribe who tries to rebuild a destroyed forest’. At the time of writing they’d just made the Australian print media for a recent court appearance related to that stage performance. The article titled ‘Stage sex man shocks again’, described how Tommy Hol Ellingsen stripped during an appearance in court after he and Leona refused to pay a fine of 10,000 crowns ($A2079) each for copulating on stage. Despite such obstacles, the kids plough on.
“This has been hard. But we have been really busy with keeping the web site alive, and the money is just growing. What we really want is to get help with buying up forest and make protected areas. Creating a fuckforforest-foundation doing it on our own.”
Jean Poole