Tuvalu to preserve the Island Nation’s land, culture and history in the Metaverse in new campaign via The Monkeys and Collider
In a dramatic illustration of the possibility that it could disappear in the next few decades due to rising sea levels, the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu has teamed with global creative agency The Monkeys, part of Accenture Song, and Collider to co-create the beginnings of a Digital Nation starting with a digital twin of one of its islands.
During a three-minute address at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), Simon Kofe, the Minister of Justice, Communication & Foreign Affairs of Tuvalu, announced that due to the ongoing effects of climate change, Tuvalu may eventually be forced to move its country entirely online. Kofe provided an example of what that could look like when, during his speech, it was slowly revealed that he was delivering it from a digital islet in the metaverse.
The address signals the beginning of a continuing project to catalogue, map, record and save as much of Tuvaluan island life as possible — including historical documents, records of cultural practices, family albums and traditional song — in the metaverse.
“The tragedy of this outcome cannot be overstated,” said Minister Kofe in his address. “But because the world has not acted, we must. Tuvalu could be the first country in the world to exist solely in the metaverse – but if global warming continues unchecked, it won’t be the last.”
The Monkeys also helped Tuvalu create a dedicated website where visitors can help show support for the country’s future.
Says Tara Ford, chief creative officer of The Monkeys: “This is such an important project and collaboration, and one where digital transformation and storytelling sit at the heart. It’s an ongoing undertaking, signaling a new and sobering chapter of a world facing the realities of climate change.”
This important message was communicated to media outlets around the world by Thrive PR, rallying the public to show their support.
Project launch website: www.tuvalu.tv
Accenture is committed to addressing environmental issues through its own commitment to be net-zero by 2025, and by helping clients and suppliers make and meet their commitments.
Agency: The Monkeys, part of Accenture Song
Co-Founder & Group CEO: Mark Green
Co-Founder & Group Chief Creative Officer: Scott Nowell
General Manager: Kezia Quinn
Chief Creative Officer: Tara Ford
Executive Creative Director: Barbara Humphries
Head of Innovation: Beth O’Brien
Creative Director: Cameron Bell
Creative Director: Sam Dickson
Senior Art Director: Alex Polglase
Senior Copywriter: Jake Ausburn
Head of Production: Penny Brown
Digital Producer: Tamara Wohl
Digital Design Lead: Eva Godeny
Head of Planning: Hugh Munro
GTM & Strategy Director, Sustainability Studio: Lucy Sundberg
Production House: Collider
Director: Glenn Stewart
EP/Producer: Karen Bryson
Managing Dir: Rachael Ford-Davies
Post Production: Collider Studio
3D Animation: Glenn Stewart
Additional Vfx: Joseph Harper
Colourist: Matt Fezz
PR: Thrive
CEO: Leilani Abels
Senior Account Director: Nathan McGregor
Senior Account Manager: Tess McDonald
Senior Account Manager: Anna Laskaris
Senior Account Executive: Maddy Beck
Account Coordinator: Sarah Nguyen
Account Coordinator: Sophie Thomason
Development team:
Tech Lead: Surya Winata
React Developer: Jasmine The
React Developer: Steve Deng
Music and Sound: MassiveMusic
Creative Director: Ryan Dickinson
Composer: Haydn Walker
Sound Design: Simon Kane
Executive Producer: Katrina Aquilia
40 Comments
An incredible idea for what is a heart-breaking situation.
?
Powerful, depressing stuff.
Beautiful. And horrible. Well done to all involved.
Gut-wrenchingly good.
So depressingly messed up. I hope it gets the response it deserves. I want to say well done monkeys, but it’s hard to be congratulatory about something as incredibly sad as this.
Love this. Powerful stuff
Are the Monkeys, part of Accenture Song, a global agency? Does having offices in Sydney, Melbourne and NZ constitute being global?
This is just an unapologetic land grab for awards. What will this actually change? Stop using fossil fuels, blah, blah, blah…we know. Do something about it, monkeys. Use you’re creativity to change behaviour. No one is listening to the same rhetoric, whether you’re in the fake metaverse or not – especially if you’re in the emotionless, pointless metaverse. Try again.
I’m so over the green washing awards based projects these agencies punch out. Seeing this reminds me how shallow this offsetting behaviour is.
I want to love it. It’s an amazing cause. But something about it just feels flippant and exploitive. I’m sure it’s not but thats how it comes across. Just doesn’t pack the same punch as Palau Pledge or Trash Isles
this was equally powerful (monkey see. monkey do)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPJYmH_V_as
This is good
Didn’t the monkeys do that ad for gulf western motor oil recently? 😂
It was half poo pooed in the comments but the other half exclaimed ‘ah it’s advertising mate, don’t be such a wet rag, this is a great piece of film! Go drive ya car ya hypocrite.’
I also remember collider doing a bunch of gambling ads recently.
‘I’m really into gambling but against global warming.’ Oddly mixed ideology?
Wouldn’t you want the islands to flood so they can move here and spend money gambling?
This seems contradictory to our shared ideals of going forever until the apocalypse?
Thought we had all accepted the mad max future?
The metaverse will go under before Tuvalu does anyway.
agreed. I think it’s because there’s no actual positive solution at the end of the logic loop.
The amount of energy decentralised technologies like the metaverse use is accelerating climate change. Moving this nation to the metaverse is accelerating its demise in the physical world.
this is backup Ukraine idea for a different reason
What positive change is this generating in the same way that Palau Pledge achieved? There’s very little meaningful action people can take with this which means this idea is rather meaningless.
It’s a different idea for a very different situation. One is about tourism. The other is about drawing global attention to a grave situation. The idea of making a digital version of an entire country suggests that it knows the writing is on the wall. But if it can use its situation to pressure governments into action then perhaps others might not face the same fate. It’s not meaningless. Doing nothing about the situation yourself and dismissing others for doing something that’s worth doing – that’s meaningless.
As Back up Ukraine – which just won this year at Cannes
Sadly, all this does is point out the problem.
Can the monkeys please make a Waterworld inspired ad for fisheries next?
Shame about Back Up Ukraine.
Do the Tuvalu people know that the Monkeys also made those LNP climate ads last year? Big yikes.
tisk tisk max-age=0 for the website cache-control. Agree with the Elephant
To highlight the decline of X (trees, whales, coral etc.), we created a museum with… ugh I don’t even have the energy.
This campaign has been done 100 times before, you’ve just happened to shoehorn in the ‘COOLEST LATEST TECH’ as your wrapping…
A quick search history of the clients represented by The Monkeys will immediately alert you to the hypocrisy of this project. So predictable. Urghhhh.
That they are able to sleep at night while producing this award show fodder knowing full well they are accelerating climate change. Strong don draper pretending to quit tobacco advertising energy.
But, the idea would have been grand prix if done a year ago – there’s a fair bit of metaverse fatigue right now. Animation and 3D is superb though.
Monkey, a part of Accenture Song, see.
Monkey, a part of Accenture Song, do.
This is exhaustingly bad for every reason.
Wait, wait wait…I just listened to the speech. If this means the country gets to retains sovereignty, how’s it empty? I’d want that if I was from Tuvalu.
“Collider to co-create the beginnings of a Digital Nation” does not seem to stretch further than creating a 3D rendition of the small island used in the film. The files ‘backing up’ on the microsite is obviously just a mirage. All the effort went into making the video in pursuit of those shiny awards.
The easiest way for the Monkeys to make an actual difference on climate would have been to simply not making those misleading climate ads for the last government.
I agree there is no clear solution coming from this but my colleague’s 18 year old son was telling him about it so that’s a good sign it’s doing its job if it’s getting talked about by the young ‘uns.
That the metaverse *does not exist* yet. So it makes a great headline, but like so many award focused projects before it, this release contains the telling lines:
The address *signals the beginning of a continuing project* to catalogue, map, record and save as much of Tuvaluan island life as possible — including historical documents, records of cultural practices, family albums and traditional song — in the metaverse.
In other words, nothing has happened yet.
So just to be clear:
– The metaverse doesn’t exist
– At some point maybe but probably not – actually definitely not – if it does, someone in Tuvalu will upload some stuff to it (which will need to be fully rendered in 3D because… that’s the vision for the metaverse).
Having said that, even though this is highly likely to never happen, as a way to at least raise issues around climate change, it’s a strong idea.
Watch this win awards as the country continues drowns. Which is pretty much the agency’s plan.
Very emotive but this whole campaign lacks any credibility as it’s built entirely on mistruths and climate hysteria. A recent University of Auckland study found that nearly half of the Pacific nations’ islands it measured have not changed in size and 43 per cent had actually grown. An ‘inconvenient truth’ some might say. Quit being climate catastrophists, Monkeys. Rising sea levels will not “swallow Tuvalu in a matter of decades”. That’s just trading off pure climate alarmism.
Great. Thanks.