What? It's fun to do the right thing?

Does this have much to do with Volkswagen cars? No.

But does it make ultraclear that traditional ways of encouraging (commanding?) people to do the right thing are hopelessly flawed? And that new-media thinking can help?

You bet.

DDB Stockholm's just-released campaign for VW demonstrates as much. Dubbed (in Swedish) "Rolighetsterorin" (if I spelled it right) or, in English, "The Fun Theory," great ways were thought up to make doing the right thing also the fun thing to do.

A subway staircase was turned for a time into a piano. Many more people took the stairs for a chance to dance on the ivories.

A bottle recycling station was turned into an arcade game. Many more brought bottles to try to rack up the highest score.

And a garbage can in a park became a bottomless pit complete with sound effects. People looked for garbage to put into it to hear it work and get a chuckle.