Ad campaign puts pressure on Canada during UN climate conference in Montreal

November 21, 2005 -

MONTREAL – Huge billboards that spoof Canada’s iconic landscapes will greet more than 10,000 delegates to the United Nations climate change conference as they begin arriving in Montreal this week.

 

Unveiled in Montreal today, the billboards use humour to drive home a serious message – our natural heritage is at risk from climate change.

 

“When you think of Canada, you think of the spectacular natural landscapes that tie our country together,” said Morag Carter, director of the Suzuki Foundation’s climate change program. “But climate change threatens those landscapes. Our ad campaign goes to the very core of our Canadian identity by satirizing that which is most sacred to us. The ads reinforce a serious message but they do so in a light-hearted way.”

 

Posted right outside the conference centre where delegates will meet, as well as inside the city’s most popular restaurants, the David Suzuki Foundation’s billboards are designed to look like massive postcards. For example, one billboard features a photograph of a young girl in a bathing suit standing on a dry lakebed with the words “The Great Lakes!” written across the bottom.

 

“We wanted to avoid the usual ‘doom and gloom’ approach but still show the consequences of inaction,” said Darren Warner, Creative Director of Wasserman & Partners Advertising, the firm behind the ads. “Using iconic Canadian images like the Canadian Rockies framed with a tongue in cheek twist gives the campaign a hard to ignore edge.”

 

The ads are also designed to drive traffic to the David Suzuki Foundation’s website where people can find more detailed information on climate change and the UN convention. In addition to the billboards, the Foundation will run newspaper ads and inserts during the conference.

 

The conference, which is being held in Montreal from Nov. 28 to Dec. 9, will be the biggest climate change gathering the world has seen since the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997. More than 10,000 delegates from more than 189 countries are expected to attend.

 

“The conference is an opportunity for Canada to enhance its international reputation as an environmental leader and agree to stronger targets to reduce greenhouse gas pollution,” said Ms. Carter. “Our ad campaign highlights why it’s so important to start taking the climate seriously.”

 

Canada will be among the countries most affected by climate change. The Great Lakes region is expected to experience more floods and droughts, lower lake levels, less lake ice cover and more extreme weather events. Glaciers on our mountains are already shrinking at an unprecedented rate, threatening wildlife and freshwater supplies. During the past 25 years, Canada’s summertime Arctic sea ice has decreased by an area about the size of Quebec, threatening polar bears, seals and Inuit culture.

 

Solutions include shifting the way we use energy to develop cleaner, more efficient technologies.

 

"That means cars that pollute less, buildings that use less energy and cleaner sources of energy," said Ms. Carter.

 

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More information about the David Suzuki’s ad campaign and downloadable images of the billboards can be found here.

 

The outdoor billboards are located across the street from the Palais des Congres conference centre, on the corner of rue de Bleury and rue Viger, as well as on the corner of rue de Bleury and boul. René Lévesques, in downtown Montreal.

 

 

For more information, contact:

Morag Carter

Director, climate change program

David Suzuki Foundation

604-732-4228, ext. 280

Cell: 778-386-1448

 

Sarah Marchildon

Communications specialist

David Suzuki Foundation

604-732-4228, ext. 237