Wunderman Thompson Australia, Activista, Framestore & Mindpool have been chosen to launch the United Nations Development Program’s climate advocacy campaign. And it looks as though the program has made an excellent choice.
The first work to emerge is a 2.30 minute hero film led by Activista, and made in collaboration with Barack Obama’s former speechwriter, in which a dinosaur addresses the United Nations General Assembly. His message could not be more superbly scripted. He is caring. He points out very simple truths in a conversational tone – there is no jargon, no pompous harangue. He asks the world’s leaders (and the viewer) not to go extinct by their own doing.
The film is supported by a digital experience platform, The World of Excuses, by Wunderman Thompson that mythbusts the objections against climate action and asks users to help. The experience allows users to click into the excuses on the website, each pictured as an asteroid rocketing towards Earth, where they will find information and tools to provide direct action. The tools will be rolled out in phases in the coming months and include the Chrome Plugin Thesaurus Rex, designed to help people navigated the terms around fossil fuels online, The Voice of Reason, an Alexa skill that disarmingly rebuts every climate change myth or excuse; a spin on The Birds and The Bees with an e-book that gives children the arguments they need to convince their parents and peers.
One part of the digital eco-system is the Global Mindpool, a collective intelligence platform that empowers people to make their voices heard and play an active part in building a more sustainable, equitable future by contributing their thoughts to a large and diverse group of global collaborators, to mobilise data to help tackle the climate and inequality crisis and influence policy change.
The full initiative is the largest and boldest global advocacy and behaviour change campaign to date.
João Braga, chief creative officer at Wunderman Thompson Australia, explained, “This behaviour change campaign gave us the largest possible target audience anyone could have. With 7 billion people to speak to and a challenge of this calibre, we needed deep creative thinking from every discipline. This digital experience is only just the start of our work with the UNDP to help end the excuses around climate change for good and provide people from all walks of life the understanding and the facts they need to make a difference. We’re even working to take this idea as far as outer-space, by naming real asteroids after these excuses”.
Boaz Paldi, global partnership & engagement manager for United Nations Development Programme, stated, “With this initiative, we want to spotlight the climate crisis and at the same time energize the debate about some of the economic solutions that are out there to get us on a path to de-carbonization. Addressing fossil fuel subsidies is a critical issue in the fight against climate change. The campaign gives hope that despite the trajectory we seem to be on there is still time to act and solutions to fight for. Creativity and technology are two of the necessary tools we need to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and move towards a green transition. It’s why we needed the best minds in the industry to partner with us in our journey to make these goals a reality.”
Credits:
Client: United Nations Development Programme
Director of Advocacy, Marketing & Communications: Anjali Kwatra
Global Engagement & Partnership Manager: Boaz Paldi
Senior Consultant, Creative Strategy: Nick Garrett
Executive Producer: Helen Trickey
Associate Producer, Campaign Advocacy: Rebecca Webb
Associate Producer, Campaign Media: Gabriela Goldman
Digital Agency: Wunderman Thompson
Chief Executive Officer: Lee Leggett
Chief Creative Officer: João Braga
Project Lead & Australian Operations Director: Paulina Embart
Associate Creative Directors: Jack Elliott & Lochie Newham
Chief Innovation Officer: Martin Beecroft
UX/UI Director: Travis Weerts
Technical Director: Marcus Collier
UX Design: Isabelle Hooper
UI Design: Chris Hyland
Client Engagement: Anna Parker
Client Engagement: Rose Suys
Integrated Production: Emma Donaldson
Creative Director, Content: Brie Stewart
Social Strategist: Annie House
Content Creator: Rhys Delios Callanan
Senior Designer: James Ayling
Content Writer: Richard Kempsey
Digital Production: Danny Coleman & Joe Guario
Illustrator: Andjela Jankovic
Creative Agency: Activista
Executive Creative Directors: Paco Conde & Beto Fernandez
Director of Strategy: Jon Carlaw
Writer: David Litt (reference to Obama)
Production Company: Framestore Pictures
Director: Murray Butler
Managing Director: Jennifer Siegel
Head of Production: Anne Vega
Line Producer: Laura Morris
Director of Photography: Wyatt Garfield
Director of Production: Carla Attanasio
Executive Producer: Pete King
Senior Producer: Chris Harlowe
Associate Producer Jose Alvarado
Creative Director: Marco Marenghi
VFX Supervisor: Karch Coons
Lighting Supervisor: Richard Shallcross
Head of 2D: Woei Lee
Compositor Lead: Mark Casey
Tracking Supervisor: Todd Herman
Editorial Supervisor: Jacob Sadowsky
VFX Editor: Dustin Indrebo
Colourist: Beau Leon
Editorial: Cut+Run
Editor: Jon Grover
Editorial Producer: Eytan Gutman
Assistant Editor: Evan Bahnsen
Audio Post Production: String and Tins
Sound Design & Mix: Jim Stewart
Additional Sound Design: Joe Wilkinson
Foley: The Foley Barn
Audio Producer: Olivia Endersby
Music Coordinator: COOL Music
Music by Rachel Portman
Music Programmer: Luke Richards
Mindpool: Anne Sofie Lind, Mik Thobo-Carlsen, Flemming Rasmussen & Antoni Harbuz
