GPY&R Sydney gives the silent majority a voice on the global stage at the UN Climate Summit

GPY&R Sydney’s global climate change campaign climaxed at the UN Climate Summit, when its video composition of auditions received from 87 countries, was watched by the business, political and religious leaders and representatives from all UN member countries gathered at the Summit’s Opening Ceremony.

This is the first time that the voice on climate from the world’s youth was presented at such a summit in this way.

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Along with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, former US VP Al Gore and introduced by celebrity Li Bing Bing, eight young people representing the world’s youth addressed the delegates of the UN Climate Summit via the film.

Says Andrew Dowling, managing director, GPY&R Sydney: “It is clear that the generation most affected by climate change is the one that currently can’t vote for the leaders who typically attend these summits.  Our campaign provided the opportunity, and the world’s youth seized it to make its voice heard at the Summit.”

The eight representatives, from the ages of 13 to 21, presented the video compiled from over 2,500 auditions that GPY&R’s campaign solicited from across the world. Each of the representatives were chosen from the videos they submitted to the campaign.

GPY&R Sydney’s Dowling, Lucielle Vardy, Bart Pawlak and David Joubert, supported by David Sharrod from Y&R New York developed the Why? Why Not? campaign for the Climate Reality Project, chaired by Al Gore.  The team developed the campaign in response to a brief seeking to give the world’s youth representation at the UN Climate Summit.

The campaign amplified into one of the world’s biggest ever climate marches, where the Why? Why Not? banner was carried amongst the 400,000 people who marched alongside Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, Al Gore and world famous English primatologist and UN messenger of peace, Dame Jane Morris Goodall.

Under the direction of WPP Group planning director Jon Steel and worldwide creative director John O’Keefe, the campaign was a cohesive, multidisciplinary effort, implemented by eight individual WPP agencies and affiliates from different geographies and disciplines (strategic planning, advertising, media investment management, digital communications, public relations & public affairs and youth marketing) supporting the launch and rollout of the campaign.

The campaign will continue to build momentum leading up to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s 21st Conference of the Parties in Paris in December 2015, with the aim of creating overwhelming public support for a global agreement on greenhouse gas reductions and climate action.

Says Steel: “It’s a real privilege to be able to apply our communications skills to solving a problem of such magnitude, and to do in partnership with people like Al Gore and Ban Ki-moon. I always relish the intellectual challenge of creating a campaign, but this time it’s very personal. Climate Change will affect all of us, if it’s not doing so already.”

The agencies that implemented the campaign are: GPY&R Sydney; JWT; Maxus; The Futures Company; PPR; The Glover Park Group; Blue State Digital; and affiliate company VICE.

The creative was originally focussed on eight countries – Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Philippines, South Africa, and the USA – but grew into a global phenomenon across 87 countries.