It's becoming increasingly de rigueur to emphasize the environmental friendliness of brands, so with that in mind, here's a new campaign from Virgin Mobile featuring anthropomorphized animals talking about how much life sucks without trees. (We’re picturing two here who are protesting by chaining themselves to a tree.) The environmental tie-in for the campaign—laborious as it is—is that Arbor Day is coming, and if you get and pay your bills online, you’ll help save trees. The spots, which are airing on MySpace and offline youth-targeted media, were created by Mother in New York and directed by David Frankham of Smuggler. The message is all well and fine, but since we can't leave well and fine alone, we’re wondering if Virgin might continue in this vein by helping people learn how to keep their old cell phones, with their toxic and decaying batteries, from ending up in a landfill. Quibble, quibble.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor