Oceana Launches Six-Figure Ad Campaign at Start of Copenhagen Talks
Goal is to highlight Ocean Acidification Impacts and Solutions to Policy Makers
Press Release Date: November 24, 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Contact:
Dustin Cranor, APR | email: dcranor@oceana.org | tel: 954.348.1314
Oceana, an international ocean conservation group, will launch a new six-figure advertising campaign on December 1, designed to influence policy makers arriving in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 15), December 7 -18, 2009.
The advertising campaign will highlight the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 350 parts per million (ppm) to avert a mass extinction of corals and likely declines in the countless marine species that depend upon them, this century.
To protect popular food species, such as oysters and lobster, and the economies that depend upon them, we will need to reach the goal of 350 ppm. The new advertising campaign includes three executions of a design based on the message: ‘The Price of Lobster in 2050: 350 parts per million.’ It will also include two additional variations: ‘The Price of Oysters’ and ‘The Price of a Dive Vacation,’ also following the 350 parts per million theme.
The message will be delivered via posters at Copenhagen International Airport, ads on subway trains running between the airport, downtown Copenhagen and the Bella Center (the central conference location), films displayed on subway station platforms, and a jumbo board strategically located along the main highway headed toward the conference site. Advertising designs were executed by UK-based agency Propaganda.
To preview the advertisements, please visit this URL:
http://na.oceana.org/en/node/3399.
“With emissions already at 385 ppm,” said Jacqueline Savitz, senior campaign director with Oceana, “we want to be clear about what is required to save an important source of food, income and recreation for the world’s population.”
The Oceana campaign will incorporate both advertising and media relations to reach policy makers and influencers before, during and after the COP 15 gathering.
Savitz explained, “Oceana’s goal is to highlight what’s at stake if we fail to achieve major carbon reductions through an agreement at Copenhagen. We hope these ads will remind policy-makers that climate change will severely alter the oceans, which will affect all of us, jeopardizing some of our favorite meals and seaside activities, among other things. It’s about whether we will have healthy oceans and ocean-based economies 40 years from now – or whether we will say goodbye to treats like lobster and oysters in our lifetime.”
Oceana’s simultaneous media relations campaign will provide context for the advertising and reinforce its message. In addition to the ad campaign, Oceana will release new information that identifies which nations’ economies and lifestyles are most vulnerable to ocean acidification. In partnership with Oceana’s global PR team, communications consultancy Blue Communications will contact environmental, energy and political reporters in many nations.
Alisdair Pettigrew, Managing Director, Blue Communications said, “There’s still plenty of appetite for messages that illustrate solutions to global environmental challenges. We hope to assist Oceana in increasing awareness among policy makers and others about what it will take to protect coastal economies and marine life.”
Oceana works to protect and restore the world’s oceans. It is the largest international ocean conservation organization in the U.S., employing scientists, attorneys and grassroots campaigners to achieve tangible goals. For more information, go to http://na.oceana.org.
Blue Communications is a leading global agency that offers a rare combination of corporate communications expertise with unrivalled industry knowledge and access to media, contacts and stakeholder networks in the marine and energy industries. For more information, go to http://www.blue-comms.com.
