Monthly Archives: April 2010

It’s 1am, I’ve been spending long hours helping migrate our 10,000 page website to a shiny new, social-media friendly design, and I really ought to be in bed. But I can’t help it watch the reviews come in for our new Earth Day video which Daniel Bird put together for us. The best reviews of course are tweets like these:

GabrielGotta: I just signed up to be an online activist with Greenpeace after watching this great new video http://bit.ly/MEtoo (expand)

prestevez: Vean este video de Greenpeace por el d �a de la Tierra que se celebra ma �ana. Est �  incre �ble. http://bit.ly/92ILNR (expand)

KartikeyaSingh: LOVE the new @greenpeace earth day video! http://bit.ly/aIrIv4(expand)

939green: the new greenpeace video makes me think , we have to take action but sometimes there’s no time, I  think we have to MAKE TIME…

min_ette: Watched the Earth Day video by Greenpeace — emotive, intense and beautiful all in one… you’ll feel for our planet, about its wellbeing

More Twitter reactions here.

HoooHAH.  That’s the idea.   The video is designed for recruitment, to get more hands on deck, and we wanted to say something about the nature of Greenpeace being the work of many — if you look at our recent KitKat campaign, you won’t see a ship in sight — the power that’s making Nestle scramble to get out of rainforest destruction is people. Lots, and lots, of people.

Last year, our Earth Day video was called Inspiring Action, and it was a monumental piece about Greenpeace in action — the videogenic stuff we’re famous for, and which we hope inspires people to take action in their daily lives, sets an example of courage, makes a statement about commitment.

This year’s installment takes a step back and makes a statement not about what we do, but what we believe in, what we’re working for, who we are.  And it reflects the glimmers of something new in Greenpeace — a willingness to look at lifestyle, at consumerism, at the way we are turning our planet increasingly into stuff.

The video is called “I want” but it’s really about what we all need.   We all want that new iPad, that new brand, that new color, that new thing.    But what we need is clean air, clean water, food without destruction, a future for our Earth.  And increasingly, consuming those things we want is eroding Earth’s ability to provide what we need.

Video: I want

We had the help this year of Stillking studios in Prague, a major motion picture outfit that has done work on the most recent Bond films and who kindly donated a vast amount of expensive time and expertise for nearly nothing when Daniel pitched the idea to them. Daniel was like a kid in a candy shop,  wrangling mimes — yes, I suspect every mime in Prague was involved, and we know what a handful even one can be!– and getting to play with high-end studio gear.  The finished product was delivered yesterday, almost undone when our composer got stuck in Athens, unable to get back from holiday to his studio in Berlin due to the volcanic ash over Europe.

But he heroically put the soundtrack together on his laptop, and the video was ready for the dawn of Earth Day in New Zealand, where we begin to push it up the ranks of YouTube’s most watched, favorited, and commented videos. (It’s already #1 in its category, but hey, we’re greedy. Until people are saying “Who?” to Justin Bieber’s name followed quickly by “Have you seen the Earth Day video?” we’re not content.)

This Earth Day, give us a hand. Forget Bieber. Thumb up this video. Pass it along. Tweet it, Facebook it, blog it — help us recruit 3 million more hands to make light work of a green and peaceful future.

Update — As of 10pm CET, 91,000 views and the following awards: