Who: Environmental Leadership Canada (ELC), a newly formed charitable organization previously affiliated with GreenPAC, with Zulu Alpha Kilo for creative and strategy; Zulubot for production and post; and Agosta Music & Sound Craft for audio.
What: “The Planet’s Scariest Bouquet,” an environmental awareness campaign that brings attention to the fact that, because temperatures have risen so much, there are two native species of flowers now thriving in Antarctica for the first time in human history.
What: “The Planet’s Scariest Bouquet,” an environmental awareness campaign that brings attention to the fact that, because temperatures have risen so much, there are two native species of flowers now thriving in Antarctica for the first time in human history.
When & Where: The campaign is in market now, to coincide with COP28, the annual climate action conference taking place until Dec. 12 in Dubai. It is anchored by a digital film shared on ELC’s YouTube and social channels and supported by social and digital executions including a downloadable version of the bouquet. A physical replica of the flowers are also on display at the climate conference.
Why: The United Nations’ 2023 Emissions Gap report, ominously titled “Broken Record,” states that the world is projected to see warming as much as 2.9C by the end of the century, largely because current and planned coal, oil and gas projects would emit 3.5 times more carbon than the target required to limit warming to 1.5 C.
Until recently Antarctica was considered resistant to the effects of climate change, but a study published in Current Biology revealed that two native species of flowering plants, Antarctic Pearlwort and Antarctic Hair Grass, are now growing at unprecedented rates.
“When the team found this insight about flowers thriving for the first time in Antarctica, we knew right away that was the story that needed to be told to the world at COP28,” said ZAK’s founder and creative chairman Zak Mroueh, in a release.
How (the strategy): Working with the non-profit for the first time, ZAK’s Toronto and New York offices collaborated to produce the anchor film in-house to get the campaign message out during the COP28 conference, which they are also attending to film social content for ELC. Going forward, they’d like to position the campaign as an annual event.
It was critical that the messaging of the campaign was rooted in scientific fact, Mroueh told The Message. So the agency worked closely with ELC’s scientific team to ensure accuracy, and ultimately chose to focus on the Antarctic flowers. “The flowers flourishing in Antarctica for the first time in human history is undeniable, and it forces viewers to consider the impact of global warming on the planet,” he said.
How (the creative): The film opens with deception: images of colourful flowers with a super that reads “Flowers are given to express love,” “convey sympathy,” and “show gratitude” before the distinctly yellow Antarctica flowers take their place and the super changes to “But not these ones.”
The light piano music that opens the spot, starts to slow down and become distorted as if something was breaking down, while climate crisis headlines from major news publications take over the screen. “Music was hugely important for the film to ensure it was as eerie and impactful as possible,” said Mroueh.
The Antarctic flowers, arranged in an unsettling bouquet, are then seen edited between aggressive images of forest fires, factory smoke and melting glacier ice. “To the leaders of the COP28 climate summit, this bouquet is a symbol of inaction, a beautiful and terrifying reminder to urge them to act,” reads the super.
The music pivots back to an optimistic tone at the end, as viewers are encouraged to demand climate action by sending a digital version of the bouquet to their elected leaders. It can be downloaded as a PDF, or JPEG at scariestbouquet.com, where ELC recommends attaching it to an email or uploading it to social media and tagging a representative.
And we quote: “As an organization committed to building a new generation of environmental leaders for the health of our planet, this campaign is about inspiration and action,” said ELC’s communications director, Beata Rasitsan. “A physical bouquet of these flowers should never exist, and sending a digital bouquet shows your expectation for urgent and ambitious leadership at COP28 and beyond.”
