Best of Global Warming Ads

When I first started contributing to Konstructr nine months ago (that long?), global warming was in the mainstream news, but wasn’t in mainstream advertising. But recently, I’ve noticed the topic of global warming finally being tackled by some of the top creatives around the world. The results are predictably fantastic.

In some ways, global warming is a dream client. It’s an original topic that already has massive recognition. Check out some of my recent favorites:

McCann Erickson Portugal for Quercus:

Artist Nele Azevedo for German World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF):

Ice sculptures in the shape of humans are placed on the steps of the music hall in Gendarmenmarkt public square in Berlin September 2, 2009. Hosted by the German World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), 1,000 ice sculptures were positioned on the steps in the German capital at noon, to highlight climate change in the arctic region. (From IBelieveinAdvertising.com)

Ogilvy & Mather, Beijing, China for Greenpeace

It’s interesting to see the message being spread in China vs. what we see in the United States. Can you imagine this ad running here in prime time during Grey’s Anatomy?

I think it’s difficult to marketing global warming without coming across as alarmist, which is off-putting to many, even believers in climate change. We don’t want to see ads that blatantly use scare tactics to convince people of climate change. We’re past that. These ads demonstrate a finesse, a delicate combination of idea, art and copy to originally and effectively convey a message that’s already been conveyed a thousand times.