Promoting a greener future
In 1971, a small group of environmentally conscious people from Vancouver sailed in an old fishing boat called The Greenpeace to Amchitka Island off the coast of Alaska to try to stop a US nuclear test. Almost five decades later, Greenpeace is one of the world's best-known environmental organizations, with a presence in more than 40 countries, and has taken countless peaceful direct actions that have helped protect our planet and promote a greener future.
As the Greenpeace movement has gained momentum over the years, so has its approach to communicating its message. The organization is now best known for its bold campaigns and headlines directly criticizing companies like BP and Coca-Cola and companies in positions of power in general, as in its recent Creature Comforts-inspired film by Aardman, who launched his campaign for a new global ocean contract which should be examined at this year's UN summit.
Greenpeace's best-known creative campaign to date was the 2018 film Rang-tan, an animation that looked at the destruction of rainforests by palm oil farmers and the devastating effects on endangered orangutans in particular. Under the direction of the Mother agency, the film was later reworked by the Icelandic supermarket chain as a surprise Christmas advertisement, marking the decision to remove palm oil from their own-label products. The film subsequently went viral and quickly garnered over 80 million online views.
Above and Above: Greenpeace's 2018 film Rang-tan was created by Mama and highlighted the threat palm oil poses to rainforests and endangered orangutans in particular. The film was later reworked by Supermarket Island for its Christmas advertising
Although Rang-tan was banned by Clearcast for violating political advertising rules, it had an impact in practice. More than 1.2 million people signed the Greenpeace palm oil petition. “In less than a year, palm oil went from an obscure ingredient listed on the back of about 50% of packaged supermarket goods to something that millions of people felt so strongly that they signed petitions to show they wanted that these supermarket ingredients are changing. Says mother ECD Hermeti Balarin.
“The greatest effects will be felt through upstream measures. Wilmar, the world's largest palm oil producer, has now committed to removing all products that lead to the deforestation of the pristine rainforest from its supply chain. This was undoubtedly due to consumer pressure. If searches for palm oil increase 10,000% in a year, you know people are interested, ”he adds.
For the CEO of Greenpeace, John Sauven, who has been with the organization since the early 1990s, the rise of social media in particular has fundamentally changed the approach to communication. "If you depend on getting your story published in a traditional newspaper, it is up to the editor of the newspaper whether or not your story is covered. But now, with social media, of course we have millions of followers, we have millions of Activists and the ability to produce films and get numbers that are comparable to newspapers, ”he says.