At the start of the #DontChooseExtinction campaign video, the doors to the UN General Assembly Hall swing open and a massive, digitally animated velociraptor pounds into the room.
“Listen up people,” the dino says, as it takes the podium to address the stunned ambassadors. “I know a thing or two about extinction. And let me tell you—and you kind of think this would be obvious—going extinct is a bad thing.”
The dinosaur goes on to deliver the core message of the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) #DontChooseExtinction campaign. Despite professing a desire to confront climate challenges, nations continue to spend billions of dollars each year subsidizing fossil fuel consumption. Why not repurpose these subsidies towards combating poverty and funding a renewable energy transition?
“Driving yourselves extinct,” the dinosaur continues, “In 70 million years, that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. At least we had an asteroid.”
Despite its sober message, the video is, well, funny. The raptor snorts a puff of air in the face of a petrified UN ambassador. It wonders how silly it would have looked if dinosaurs had spent hundreds of billions of dollars “subsidizing giant meteors.” Even the dino’s call to action—urging humans to “don’t choose extinction”—comes across as more absurd than scolding. Why, after all, would anyone choose extinction?
Comedy is not a communications strategy that is typically used when talking about the climate crisis, but several recent studies have shown it works. At a conference about the campaign during South by Southwest last month, Boaz Paldi, Global Engagement and Partnership Manager at UNDP, said humor—as well as a roster of global celebrities who have provided the dinosaur’s voice in 58 languages—is essential to its engagement strategy.
“The problem is that tackling the issue [of climate change] often leads to doom and gloom campaigns,” Paldi says. “We were trying to find an accessible way to speak about issues that were both complicated and scary—but in a slightly humorous way.”
The approach works. EarthX hosted the feature debut at COP 26 in Glasgow which has been viewed by 1.2 billion people, and the campaign has been covered by major news networks in 98 countries. In 26 years of UN Climate Change Conferences, fossil fuel subsidies have never been on the negotiating table. After COP 26, world leaders committed to adding them to the agenda of all future climate negotiations.
EarthX is the official non-profit media sponsor of #DontChooseExtinction and will bring its creators to Dallas to take part in the UN’s SDG Media Summit. It’s the first time this signature UN event is leaving New York. Over two days beginning on April 22, the SDG Media Summit convenes the creative minds behind several media campaigns and storytelling efforts that are experimenting with new ways to leverage the power of media to further social progress.
To learn more about the EarthX’s UN SDG Media summit or if you’re interested in attending, head here.
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