Tales from the Riverbank: Grantham RiverCare co-leads write about spending time in nature

Down here on the riverbank, we don’t normally take any notice of advertising, writes Ian Simmons and David Martin, co-leads of Grantham RiverCare.

We like to think that, like most people, if asked, we would say that advertising doesn’t influence us. However, the smart people ‘in the know’ say, tongue in cheek, that 50% of the money spent on advertising is wasted, but not even these smart people know whether it is the first 50% - or the second!

The confusion surrounding the effectiveness of advertising probably explains the £10 billion spent in the UK by advertisers annually. Those smart people don’t spend that sort of cash without expecting a return on their investment.

There are many stories of how big brands cut their marketing budgets only to see sales fall off a cliff. It seems that the public have short memories and need reminding constantly to buy the latest products! Even products that have over a century of selling to the public continue to advertise to this day. It is, as they often say, “the real thing”!

So it was interesting to see the ad put out recently by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) ‘prescribing nature’. Cleverly constructed, it begins with a ‘doctor’ writing out a prescription - for nature! The camera pans out from the ‘surgery office’ into a forest with lakes, fluffy animals and the sound of the countryside (the fluffy animals may have been imagined!).

This message supports what we have written about in previous ‘Tales’, taking what we have been saying for a while now - that spending time in green and blue spaces is good for your health.

With the realisation that a lot of what is wrong with our place in the world can be improved by restoring our connection with nature, taking us away from the urban jungle and back to a calmer, more natural world.

The great thing about this realisation is that it provides a cheaper and less prophylactic plan, moving us away from expensive and, potentially, addictive methods of dealing with the pressures of modern life, saving the NHS billions in the process.

On the riverbank, we multiply the benefits of being outdoors with the endorphin boost of litter picking. Leaving our town in a better state than we found it gives all of us a natural high.

If you want to try this for yourself, please get in touch and join us as we selfishly improve our health and wellbeing!