TBWA Employs Star Voices for Conservation International

TBWA Media Arts Lab has launched a star-studded campaign for Conservation International, entitled “Nature is Speaking,” which employs celebrities as elements of nature delivering the message that environmental reform is an immediate concern.

Star voices include Julia Roberts as Mother Nature, Harrison Ford as The Ocean, Kevin Spacey as The Rainforest, Edward Norton as The Soil, Penelope Cruz as Water and Robert Redford as The Redwood. The campaign debuted at SXSW Eco and rolled out yesterday on YouTube, with the Mother Nature film highlighted on www.conservation.org. That nearly two-minute video functions as the campaign’s center point and introduction. Roberts, as Mother Nature, casts aside the notion that nature is something separate from people to be used. “I don’t really need people, but people need me,” Roberts intones over footage of natural marvels (bonus points for time-lapse footage of oyster mushrooms growing). She goes on to point out how the fate of humans is linked to nature. “When I thrive, you thrive,” she says. “When I falter, you falter — or worse.” She concludes, “One way or another, your actions will determine your fate. Not mine…I am prepared to evolve, are you?” It’s a powerful message, hammering home the immediacy of the issue with emotion.

It also functions as something of a rebranding for the environmental movement. As Dr. M. Sanjayan, Conservation International’s executive vice president and senior scientist points out in a press release, “The environmental movement has missed the mark when talking about nature because it tends to present nature as something that is separate from people. By making it clear that people need nature to survive, we are turning the conversation around and making the movement relevant to entirely new audiences.”

As the campaign continues, Conservation Internation will highlight a different film each week on www.conservation.org, with an accompanying post on its Human Nature blog. Next week will focus on The Ocean (voiced by Vice Chairman of Conservation International Harrison Ford), followed by The Rainforest (voiced by Spacey) and The Soil (Norton). We’ve included Ford and Spacey’s contributions after the jump. The campaign also includes a social extension, with HP promising to donate one dollar to Conservation International, up to one million, for every use of the #NatureIsSpeaking hashtag. (more…)

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