A Billion Votes for Planet Earth
The world has voted.
On Saturday March 28th at 8.30pm local time over 4000 cities and towns ‘officially’ took part in Earth Hour making it the world’s first global vote and the strongest call to action against climate change. The total number of people taking part around the world is thought to be 1 billion, although it will be a while before WWF will announce an official number. Lights went out over many of the world’s most famous icons including the Sydney Opera House, Greece’s Parthenon on top of the Acropolis, the Las Vegas strip, New York’s Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower, London’s Big Ben, Piccadilly Circus, the statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro and San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge.
In the Philippines alone over 650 towns and cities took part. Whilst in China thousands of public buildings switched off their lights, including the Bird’s Nest stadium and the neon lights across Hong Kong Island.
The global VOTE EARTH campaign, created by Leo Burnett Sydney, transformed Earth Hour into the world’s first global election – between Earth and global warming. In the lead up to Earth Hour, people of the world were urged to VOTE EARTH by using their light switch as their vote.
“We could not be happier with the results from this year’s Earth Hour. Early reports are showing that nearly 1 in 7 people in the world took part, making this an event unlike any other in history. The bar was set very high, one billion votes for earth. It’s not official yet but it looks like we may have reached our goal. We are proud of all those involved. Hopefully this will go a long way in making our case to lower emissions targets at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen,” said Andy DiLallo and Jay Benjamin, co-executive creative directors, Leo Burnett Sydney.
The campaign was seen by millions of people across the globe through local media placement in multiple integrated channels, including television, radio, posters, press, ambient and online advertising. It was also supported by an extensive social networking campaign.
“We’re extremely proud of how many people got involved online. Based on initial results, over 6% of the global internet population mentioned VOTE EARTH or Earth Hour. Currently, the campaign has nearly 100 million references online and when you compare that to the US election, Earth Hour received a third of Obama’s coverage for less than one thousandth of the cost. It’s amazing to think that a brand only three years old is getting so much coverage online. Most content was created in Australia, but Malaysia, Singapore and Canada built on it, helping to make it a truly global campaign,” says Dominique Hind, head of digital at Leo Burnett Sydney.
WWF are taking the results of the VOTE EARTH campaign to the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009, urging governments of the world to adopt official policies to take action against global warming. The VOTE EARTH campaign represents the first time in history that people of all ages, backgrounds and race have been able to vote in an election that was not about which country you’re from, but what planet you are from.
SUPPORTING FACTS
Based on the 31 Dec 08 figures of 1,581,571,589 global internet users.
VOTE EARTH
– Over 45,100,000 Google results
– Over 320,000 blog references
– Over 340,000 MySpace references
– Over 9,500 Twitter references
– Over 1,410 YouTube videos
– Over 1,342 Flickr images
EARTH HOUR
– Over 53,900,000 Google results
– Over 190,000 blog references
– Over 94,000 MySpace references
– Over 109,000 Twitter references
– Over 20,500 YouTube videos
– Over 21,333 Flickr images
Obama generated 288,000,000 references on Google.
Obama spent $1.5billion on his campaign.
46 Comments
my vote goes to Earth Year
Wouldn’t it be more useful if this billion actually did something?
Tsk Tsk. Do keep up. Trillion is the new billion
My vote is; it’s shit.
Use your head, don’t be a fuckwit, conserve a little of everything every day.
Don’t buy into that tokenism. Do something better. Everyday.
Like what, 10.12?
Be part of the results ‘being taken to the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009, urging governments of the world to adopt official policies to take action against global warming’?
Or would you prefer they go online to ‘Join the Debate’ or whatever the internet obligation you included on your last X vs Y-style campaign urges…?
I live in Singapore and the impact here was huge. Awareness is the first learning and some, obviously not you 10.56, take while. Keep it coming, it is brilliant!
who fucking cares, i drove through sydney and… sorry boys it was only 25% of the normal light usage.
but hey, thanks for trying. stop wasting valuable co2 pr’ing this shit and spend more time changing stuff.
buy a fucking tree or something.
Someone out there should do a documentary on Jay & Andy. Titled: Everything Jay and Andy touches turns into votes.
Congrats everyone. Not your average scam public service campaign that does nothing. This is the most real attempt at making a real change I have seen from an agency.
VOTE EARTH! VOTE TITANIUM!
Is there nothing else to talk about?
Like proper ideas, like that ‘taste the future’ thing.
Someone put that up for fucks sake.
I’m sick of modern adman’s mamby-pamby nonsense, his plinky-plonk music over beautifully shot visuals of cunts all smiling and running around doing something ‘amazing’ for the world.
Fuckin Fallons has a lot to answer for for starting that shit.
Bring proper ideas, with a bit of anger in them: ‘Bit of animal’ – Pepperami.
Bring that little meaty cunt back – liven the whole thing up a bit and give this industry a good kick up the arse.
Soft. Why i outa…
Sorry, but I needed that.
Nice idea buy God I hate this whole PR thing. The guys should remember Jesus. He did some amazing shit but was happy for his work to speak for itself. Where the fuck was the “Total fishes and loaves distributed over 40,000; 2000 litres of wine produced” Eh?
Earth Hour is a dead horse. Sorry, a dead dog. And the ‘awards industry’ will continue to give it plenty of ol’ metal because it’s the right thing to do. Like feel better about what we do.
Obama generated 288,000,000 references on Google.
Obama spent $1.5billion on his campaign.
So you just went out and ripped off his poster campaign.
7.45 Titanium, Why, hasn’t the idea of Earth Hour already been awarded?
Would Droga’s “Tap Water Project” win more awards if they did just another poster that encouraged more people to buy more tap water. Just a question…any CD’s out there that can clarify EH winning more awards?
ONE BILLION? My arse. I mean as if they were ever going to say “unfortunately we missed our target.” They can’t know that. Oh wait, of course they can… didn’t they hook up everyone’s light switch to a ballot system so we could all vote from our houses?
My lord this is a BIG BIG joke.
Next year, let’s get other planets to turn their lights off.
it’s the same idea as last time, just a different poster. If it gets awards the award industry is a bigger joke than i thought.
Truth is, we all know if we really wanted to do something about this we’d have to encourage people to be less materialistic. ie. buy fewer things, thus reducing the impact of production on the envrinment and of course, reducing the waste and pollution from the packaging, promotion etc etc.
But I don’t think we’d really like to do that would we. Because we’d be fucked without a job, we wouldn’t be able to go to Cannes etc etc etc.
I think you know where I’m going with this. We’re all hypocrites.
Someone out there should do a documentary on Jay & Andy. Titled: Everything Jay and Andy touch turns into Gold.
Yes 11:12, I think we all know where you’re going but it doesn’t quite add up. Conserving energy and respecting the environment doesn’t mean you have to buy less products. It does however mean you should choose the products you buy wisely. Be a smart consumer. And encourage your clients to be smart clients. The days of hiding dirty laundry in a company closet are over. Transparency is king today. And there is lots of money to be made for transparent clients because consumers want to buy from brands they trust. So there you have it…you can consume all you want and even have some fun doing it. Just don’t buy a freakin’ Hummer. It’s all common sense.
I HOPE NOBODY SWITCHED THEIR LIGHTS OFF – BECAUSE I WANT THESE BLOGGERS TO BE EXTINCT ASAP
11.15, not sure about that one buddy, seems like nothing has resulted in anything yet…especially Gold. In actual fact judging by the quality of work coming out of Leo’s since, eg:
Canon vault ad keep memories safe.
Colonial First State’s terrible tv spot and outdoor ad (chick boxing).
Woeful Tourism Tasmania idea, taking the piss on “Australia” the movie idea. Another one that slipped under the radar was an average “Bundy” spot about ingredients etc.
Earth Hour’s the best thing they’ve got only they make no money on and it generate’s ZERO extra revenue potential.
Wow! Look at those figures. This came out of Sydney and has reached a billion people in over 80 coutnries. That’s, at the very least, noteworthy,
The thing to remember is that the act of shutting down for an hour is not to save energy, but to make a symbolic statment – like Valentines Day.Of course, you want & should love all year. Yet, Feb 14th is just one day that we remember to show it. Similarly Earth Hour is the hour we think about Earth.
I agree with the mamby-pamby plinky -plonk comment, and I defnately prefer Iron Maiden to Nick Drake any day. Nevertheless, Vote Earth was a bit rock & roll. The posters were in your face, and the animated spot had a drippiing earth covered in fire and smoke. Moreover, Obama Girl left her man to be Earth GIrl. So, Vote Earth had sex appeal as well (did you see the posters she did?).
All n’ al, I enjoyed being a part of it and am impressed with the worldwide interest generated. Thanks to everyone involved.
Global warming bring it on! Everyone wants to live closer to the ocean.
Does any-one else find it interesting that the same company that champions Earth Hour and takes every opportunity to PR it says nothing about the fact that they just one millions of dollars worth of business from an oil company?
Fact, Leo Burnett has just won Caltex.
Fact, Leo Burnett actively sort out that piece of business.
But who knows maybe they’ll convince them to turn the lights off in the service stations next year?
leos won caltex. Well done dudes!
How does WWF feel about their agency helping Caltex make millions?
Surely they can’t be happy about that?
Why don’t you ask them Lynchy?
WOULD ANYONE AT LEO BURNETT LIKE TO COMMENT?
hey 11:55, you’re like a Jay & Andy stalker. A little scary.
Someone should do an audit on Leo Burnett and every other company involved with this campaign to see how much energy was consumed, so we can see how much of a punch to the planet’s face it really was. This campaign was a farce form the start.
Hi Guys. Why are you all so anti Earth Hour? Is it not something you should be proud of? That your industry was semi-responsible for worldwide collaboration of the last three years? It was never a commercial project, but a massive global event being run with limited resources. There was a simple goal here, and that was to get as many people as possible to participate in Earth Hour, to show people how powerful they can be when they all act together. It is not about the politics and the business of it, it is about simply showing that everyone can make a difference. The collaborative content approach introduced by Australia is resonating worldwide and that is because of all of you. Well done.
Leo’s don’t even run their building on green energy, even though they have EA as a client.
So Leo’s are yet another “do as I say, not as I do” organisation.
That’s just par for the course, really.
Al Gore is a famous hypocrite, burning up more carbon on his whole than most mid sized towns. And that’s just cooking his dinner. (Man, is he fat.)
Richard Bransen flies across the world to attend candle light dinners to celebrate Earth Hour.
Prince Charles takes an army of servants round the world in a private plane to promote environmental awareness.
If they don’t take it seriously, how can we?
BURN THE WITCH!!! BURN THE WITCH!!!! BURN THE WITCH!!!!
Chris,
Earth hour was not for the environment. It was to propel the careers of all involved.
This movement will NOT save the environment.
I find this especially ridiculous considering that the global advertising industry is partially responsible for the huge amount of plastic rubbish landfills and the ludicrous culture of living beyond our means which has led us to this financial crisis that will bankrupt the American economy and crash its dollar.
The people that created this are simply using a popular convention stemming from guilt about what we’ve done to the planet.
When you say it isn’t about politics I am astounded. IT IS ALL ABOUT POLITICS. It is all about deception. Turning all our lights of for an hour does nothing to slow down the damage done by creating all this material let alone slowing down the greenhouse effect. Seriously. Wake up. It’s just more rubbish.
12:17…Leo’s are moving in June…to a 5 star environmental building. Do a little research before you bark eh?
Shit, of course Leo’s or any other agency in the world cares nothing for the planet. In case you hadn’t noticed, we all earn a living promoting the sort of consumerism that causes the problem in the first place.
It might make some people sleep better at night, conceiving and awarding feelgood campaigns like EarthHour, but the fact remains that if we’re any good at our jobs, we’re a part of the problem.
It staggers me that any advertising agency could even begin to think that they could somehow position themselves as environmentally responsible.
Good on Leo’s for shifting to a 5 star building. It just makes their footprint a little smaller than DDB’s (for example). But it doesn’t make them saints.
That’s because we’re all EARTH-RAPING MOTHERFUCKING SCUM. If you can’t handle it, go sell hemp or something. But stop pretending that the odd WWF ad that you do mainly for Cannes is somehow making you an eco-warrior.
Seen THANK YOU FOR SMOKING? We’re the Merchants Of Death. Deal with it.
I wish people would actually spend a little time thinking, if that’s even possible for this lot, before they comment on this blog. Just a little. Even like 10 seconds would help.
What does Earth Hour ask people to do? Conserve energy? Think about the environment? Discuss our energy future? Study up on the subject and have a point of view? Yes, all of those.
Does it ask people to take their cars to the junkyard and never drive again? No.
Believe it or not, it is possible to have a client like WWF while guiding an energy company in the right direction. Earth Hour is an awareness campaign that is designed to make people think about the impact they are having on the world around them. This year in particular it is aimed at the top governments of the world.
Now, onto Caltex. By taking on a brand like Caltex , Leo won’t be asking people to consume more petrol. When was the last time you saw a petrol company ask someone to drive a shitload more? Doesn’t work that way. Leo’s job as an agency will be to get people, no matter how much or how little they drive, to chose Caltex over BP or the like. It doesn’t matter if they drive once a month or all day every day. So Earth Hour and Caltex are unrelated arguments as much as you’d like to slam them together. Sorry, but Petrol companies are not to blame for corporate and human excess and inefficiency. Funny enough, It’s companies like Caltex and BP that can take us out of this mess with the right guidance. They will be developing the cleaner, more natural fuels and energy of the future.
For me, that’s the end of that argument.
Cheerio. Feel free to slam me all you want. I don’t care.
To Anonymous at 3.23pm yesterday. Sorry to have to call you Anonymous. I do understand some of the ‘frustrations’ on this site, but I was talking about when Earth Hour was announced late 2006 and its build through 2007 up to now and ongoing.
Well before its announcement, B&T had run a Global Warming creative competition along the lines of Award Award type compos. Some entries were all about saving energy and switching off lights and one of your more famous CD’s who was judging remarked “such tepid entries for such a hot subject”.
The subject of Global Warming was indeed hot with your whole industry before the Earth Hour announcement and remained even hotter after. Then your industry, (not Earth Hour) invited Al Gore to address The Cannes Lions and you gave him an honorary ‘Advertising’ Lion and a standing ovation. So yeah, I can see what you mean about accelerating careers. I also understand what hypocrisy means and I stand firm by what I said the original premise of Earth Hour was and how great the worldwide content collaboration has been. Cheers everyone….
To whom it may concern,
If you want to be truly green without smelling like a hippy, there’s a lot more that you can do than turn off your lights.
Set up a car pool at work. Most of us live in the Eastern Suburbs anyway (Melbourne included). Get your agency to organise a bus, like Crispin Porter Bogusky have. Great PR.
http://www.thedenveregotist.com/article/2026/crispin-porter-bogusky-making-its-mark-on-boulder
A lot of big offices in Sydney have been giving out free weekly travel passes for years, in an effort to encourage people to catch public transport. It works.
For management, don’t buy existing trees, that are in the ground anyway to offset your carbon. It doesn’t actually make a difference, the trees are there anyway. Plant them. It’s rewarding and you get fit for free instead of paying an expensive jock trainer to scream at you.
If you have the room, plant an orange tree. Grow your own vegetables. The amount of petrol involved in transportation and refrigeration is an enormous waste of energy. It’s better for you. And cheaper.
Participate in a communal garden like the ones in Chippendale and Redfern. Start your own. Guerrilla gardening is fun even if your renting. It makes your street look better and smell half decent in spring.
You can also do so many simple things to reduce carbon in the office.
An office of 200 people will work 260 days per year, factoring in leave, weekends and personal / sick leave. If every person drank one less coffee from a foam cup, that’s 52,000 foam cups per year. For one office, of 200 people. Do you really need to swan around with that massive wanky Latte cup in the morning or could you just get there a bit earlier, collect your thoughts and sit in the Cafe?
Don’t drive, unless it is absolutely necessary.You will get fit, lose weight and have a bit more time to smell the roses by finding other means of getting around. It’s actually fun sitting on the bus. Who knows you might crack an idea or an interesting observation there hanging around ‘real people’.
Without petrol, we will have no medicine, no plastics, no soaps, no rubber, no shampoo, no clothes, no junk food, no makeup, no hair products, no deodorant, no toothpaste…. forever.
Forever.
Check your bathroom cupboard and almost everything in there will contain one or more of these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrochemical
Petrol burns this finite resource. Using a car is the most wasteful thing any human being could do.
If the adult population of Australia used 1 less litre of fuel per day, and walked to the shops instead of driving, we’d save 3.65 billion litres of valuable resource per year. (based on adult pop of 10million people).
I’m not a fan of telling everyone I’m green, or telling people what to do, but if you want to make a difference, it’s the little quiet things that make the most noise.
It takes 200ml of oil to make and get that plastic bottle of water into your hands. Think about that before you figure that a 4 buck bottle of Fiji water is somehow a better choice than a glass from the tap.
3:30PM – and that water you buy is more expensive than petrol!
WTF!?
No wonder the advertising industry is becoming increasingly irrelevant. I have to say that the negative comments here show you to be nothing more than a pack of fucking jealous morons who dwell in negativity. Clients who read this will think significantly less of the industry & your (lack of) professionalism.
Earth Hour is a brilliant idea that gets people talking and acting. Who cares the event is just for 60 minutes, it is the increased consciousness of the Earth’s plight that matters. Who cares that it is now an annual event that is 3 years old. Kids do projects on it, they pester their parents, parents change behaviour, different choices get made.
The negative hack detractors of this should do the following:
1. Shut the fuck up & stop your whinging
2. Think about what that 60 minutes actually does – there is a residual effect pre & post Earth Hour
3. Do something that comes even close to getting global coverage from Schools to TV networks. Then you can comment
4. Win the Canne Titanium for an idea that actually matters – then comment
5. If you can’t do any of that then back your adapts of USA based print or finish your Real Estate ads for this week!
Following 12.41’s impeccable logic, no-one is allowed an opinion on anything unless they’ve done something to a similar standard.
Which means that not only is 12.41’s positive opinion on EarthHour just as irrelevant as the negative opinions he disagrees with, but…
Anyone who hasn’t played sport at an elite level should desist from having an opinion on the cricket and footy.
Only artists can decide whether they like a painting or not.
Think the latest Ford Falcon is a piece of crap? Sorry, but unless you’re an automotive designer, your opinion is worthless.
I could go on, but I have to get back to adapting some American real estate ads. Anyone know what the Australian equivalent of a ‘Cape Cod style home with spacious basement and plenty of yardspace for those Thanksgiving cookouts!’ is…?