Unicef launches climate change campaign

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Children’s aid organisation Unicef is launching a digital campaign to raise awareness of the impact of climate change on children and aid projects in developing countries.

The charity has partnered with environmental non-profit group Do The Green Thing to create a 90 second illustrated video featuring a character called Climate Kid voiced by broadcaster Jon Snow.

The video illustrates how the boy would need to adapt to cope with the effects of climate change, such as drought and flooding, on his environment.

Unicef aims to raise awareness of the need to help communities adapt to climate change as part of its aid work to ensure that children have access to education, clean drinking water and food.

The 12 week awareness and fund raising campaign includes advertising on Spotify and Facebook, a campaign microsite and social media activity including a Twitter competition and a Facebook status takeover.

It will also include PR and an experiential campaign at festivals in the summer. The Climate Kid creative could later form an offline campaign including TV ads and outdoor billboard sites.

Unicef is experimenting with different media, tone and styles to communicate its message and this is the first time it has taken a digital approach in an attempt to send its message viral.

Lucy Stone, Unicef climate change consultant, says: “It’s a difficult thing to communicate and the challenge was to show the need for adaptation in a simple way, without resorting to the doom and gloom messaging usually associated with climate change, and without undermining the seriousness of the message.”

Climate change campaigners have struggled to successfully communicate their messge and a government campaign from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), was banned last year for overstating the damage casued by climate change.

The 10:10 lobby group faced a backlash over a “tasteless” ad which showed people being blown up for not caring about climate change.

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