STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN — In celebration of the upcoming Earth Day on April 22, 2023, Fridays for Future, the global youth-led climate strike movement founded by Greta Thunberg, has unveiled their latest advertising campaign, “Earth is no toy.” Through this campaign, the organization invites G20 leaders to take the necessary steps toward addressing the climate crisis and protecting our planet. The G20 is supposed to address climate change mitigation and sustainable development. The campaign features G20 leaders depicted as children, holding our planet like a ball, with the tagline “Earth is no toy.”
The campaign features child versions of Anthony Albanese (Prime Minister of Australia), Joe Biden (President of the United States of America), Mohammed bin Salman (Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia), Luiz Enácio Lula da Silva (President of Brazil), Tayyip Erdoğan (President of Turkey), Alberto Fernández (President of Argentina), Xi Jinping (President of the People’s Republic of China), Fumio Kishida (Prime Minister of Japan), Emmanuel Macron (President of France), Giorgia Meloni (Prime Minister of Italy), Narendra Modi (Prime Minister of India), Andrés Manuel López Obrador (President of Mexico), Cyril Ramaphosa (President of South Africa), Olaf Scholz (Chancellor of Germany), Yoon Suk Yeol (President of South Korea), Rishi Sunak (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom), Justin Trudeau (Prime Minister of Canada), Ursula von der Leyen (President of the European Commission), Joko Widodo (President of Indonesia).
The campaign is a call to action for our leaders to acknowledge the gravity of the situation, with the hope that they will become the role models we need. It’s intending to touch our leaders to remind them that they were once children and to encourage them to work towards a more sustainable future for us all. The recent IPCC report reiterated that the science is clear and the need to act is urgent. Even the UN Secretary-General has called out world leaders for their inaction.
The impacts of climate change becoming increasingly apparent and devastating… we are witnessing unprecedented weather phenomena such as snow in California, typhoons wreaking havoc in the Philippines and Oceania, and Wildfires scorching vast swaths of land in Australia. The rising global temperatures have intensified droughts in Africa and Central America, while other regions like Asia experience an increase in torrential rains, resulting in catastrophic floods. The Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets continue to melt at alarming rates, causing sea levels to rise and threatening coastal cities worldwide. Ocean acidification, a direct consequence of increased carbon dioxide emissions, is endangering marine life and vital ecosystems like coral reefs.
Climate change has also exacerbated extreme weather events like hurricanes, cyclones, and heat waves, putting millions of lives and livelihoods at risk. The loss of biodiversity, deforestation, and desertification are further consequences of human-induced climate change, threatening the delicate balance of our planet’s ecosystems and the survival of countless species.
The Fridays for Future’s “Earth is no toy” campaign, imagined and produced by creative agency FRED & FARID Los Angeles, is now available for viewing on Fridays for Future’s social media channels and website. The organization invites all individuals to join in this call to action and share the message widely.
The agency FRED & FARID Los Angeles said, “This campaign includes a subtle nod to a famous ‘globe scene.’ Hopefully, our leaders will catch the reference.”
Fridays For Future US’ Katharina Maier said: “Humanity is at a crossroads. Now is when we decide how we want to go on as a civilization. Will we create a livable, just, equitable future for everyone? Or will we let present and future generations live with chaos and destruction? The planet’s life-supporting systems are disintegrating, and our environment needs to be restored.”
The characters of the “Earth is no toy” campaign has been designed with the support of AI, by AI producer Benjamin Benichou in Los Angeles. And the campaign has received generous support from Wild Posting (wildposting.com) and You Me Him and Her (youmehimandher.com).
The “Earth is no toy” campaign is the eight collaboration between FRED & FARID Los Angeles and Fridays for Future. In 2019, FRED & FARID Los Angeles launched their first campaign for the organization called “Local Warming” which shined a spotlight on the local impact of climate change during the United Nations Climate Change Conference. In 2020, the agency illustrated Greta’s Thunberg metaphor in the spot “House on Fire”.
In 2021, on the day that NASA’s Perseverance Rover touched down on Mars, the agency unveiled “1%” – a satirical tourism ad for Mars, to awaken the 99% of humans who will have to stay on Earth; later that year, in September 2021, the agency launched “The Denial”, a film to illustrate our global denial about the climate crisis, in which a man was simply running into a wall. In early 2022, the agency released “We Don’t Care”, a film starring a cast of GenZ kids questioning the existence of climate change with the familiar rhetoric of climate deniers, coinciding with Fridays for Future’s next Global Climate Strike. And most recently, the agency launched “I Love You, California”, a film illustrating the devastation of the near-constant phenomenon of California wildfires’ and their effects on climate change – and “Aliens”, a campaign, highlighting human-caused environmental destruction as the real threat, urging voters to elect climate champions in upcoming midterms. The FRED & FARID group (Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Shanghai) invests 25% of its time to support pro bono organizations moving society forward.
CREDITS:
Fridays For Future US: Katharina Maier
Creative Agency: FRED & FARID Los Angeles
Chief creative officers: Fred & Farid
Art Director: Radouane Guissi
Copywriter: Radouane Guissi
Agency Supervisor: Jules Chaffiotte
AI producer: Benjamin Benichou
Executive Producer: Amanda Van Caneghem
Communications director: Jalila Levesque
