In a bid to redefine climate change awareness in Asia, advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather has teamed up with the Asia Pacific Media Alliance for Social Awareness (The Media Alliance) to launch an ambitious public awareness campaign.
The ‘Redraw the Line’ campaign, announced at a preview on Wednesday at the Media Leaders’ Forum held at the Asia Television Forum in Singapore, is designed as a positive alternative to the grim warnings about climate change that the public is used to hearing.
Speaking to Eco-Business on the sidelines of the event, Ogilvy & Mather managing director Dan Gibson said “there is a legacy of fear mongering in environmental messaging, and the audience has become inured to it.”
For the first year, the campaign - based on the topic of flooding - will be piloted in Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines to mobilise individuals and communities to do their part for the environment in practical ways.
Chief executive of The Media Alliance Craig Hobbs noted that campaign managers were able to gain the participation and support of governments in these three countries relatively quickly and easily because the campaign’s message was in line with their national priorities and interests.
Other countries, to be determined later, will added over the next five years.
The flooding theme was chosen to resonate with the public in the pilot countries, which have all experienced severe floods in recent years - a phenomenon that is set to increase with the worsening of climate change globally.
The ‘line’ in the campaign title has multiple meanings. It refers to literal flood lines and lines pertaining to dessertification zones, deforestation zones, food supplies, carbon levels and other aspects of climate. It also refers to a symbolic course of action that people can take to cope with the effects of climate change.
Mr Hobbs told Eco-Business after the event that in Thailand, where the campaign’s English-language version is set to be launched first before distribution in other locations and languages, the campaign’s production schedule was delayed when heavy flooding caused universities to close.
“It is ironic that the production of the campaign was delayed due to flooding and climate change,” he said.
He noted that The Media Alliance was pushing to roll out the website, social media and the first audio visual pieces (Public Service Ads) by the beginning of January 2012.
Ogilvy & Mather’s Mr Gibson said that, although climate change is widely acknowledged in Asia, the people here seem to have a sense of helplessness with regards to global warming.
He said that research has shown that the majority of people in the region felt it was the job of the government to address climate change. People’s attitudes need to move from “only god and the government can do this” to one of self-empowerment, he added.
To bring about this shift, The Media Alliance and Ogilvy & Mather will work with regional media partners, including Discovery Networks Asia Pacific and Viacom International Media Networks, to help teams of university students jump-start local and national public awareness campaigns.
Local student groups will identify target audiences and the best methods of reaching them through websites, social media networks, cinema, outdoor advertising, mobile phone messaging, broadcast television, print and other media.
University teams will be able to draw on the resources of private sponsors, advertising agencies, media and entertainment organisations, and government and non-government agencies to spread their message.
For example, The Media Alliance is working with media companies to donate unsold advertising space to the campaign as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies.
The campaign hopes to encourage people to take practical, tangible steps towards a more sustainable lifestyle such as using less electricity, buying eco-friendly products, and using sustainable transport.
Mr Gibson said the sustainability actions recommended by the campaign needed to be accessible to the mainstream, as opposed to more drastic measures taken by what he called ‘eco-warriors’. “We have to make it feel normal and easy,” he added.
Details of the campaign, which is supported by the Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency, the Asian Development Bank and the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural organisation, will be available online once the event is formally launched early next year.
The effectiveness of the campaign in the pilot countries will be measured by market research company Synovate.
‘Redraw the Line’ is part of a larger effort by United Nations agencies and the media industry to ensure media plays a proactive role in sustainability, which was the topic of discussion at the Media Leaders Forum. The forum, organised by The Media Alliance, Reed Exhibitions, digital media industry association CASBAA and media directory ContentAsia, attracted about 100 participants at the Marina Bay Sands convention centre.
Panelists at the event called on the media to dedicate more coverage and resources to climate change issues, and to shift their focus away from divisive debates towards positive case studies and solutions.
The Media Alliance’s Mr Hobbs also pointed out that the media could help green consumption become a mainstream behaviour by creating prime-time content encouraging such lifestyle changes.
The media promotes consumerism by hosting commercial advertising, which shapes our lifestyle and has led to over-exploitation of natural resources and the creation of waste, he noted.
“Considering their enormous power to reach mass audiences, the media have a social responsibility to support public service messaging to affect attitudes, behaviours and lifestyle in positive way,” said Mr Hobbs.
“If we expect to change behaviour and patterns, we need to start with popular culture,” he added.
