The Brief

AICMED, an NGO with a focus on environment preservation, wanted to spread awareness among children, the future citizens of our planet, about the perils of global warming. They wanted to target schools in Calcutta and the communication to be participative and interactive in nature.

Creative Execution

The challenge was to make the melting of ice caps relevant to children in a tropical part of India such as Calcutta. An ice cream seemed the most compelling medium to do this in a simple and engaging way. It was a demonstration that had an element of surprise and made children empathise with the issue immediately.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

A typical behaviour of school children inspired the idea. After summer classes, children invariably rush to get ice cream. We created special ice candies in partnership with Rollick Ice Cream. We etched images of lifeless polar creatures on the ice cream sticks and distributed them at schools. As the heat melted the ice, the lifeless polar creatures got revealed. This was accompanied by a stark message: 'When polar ice melts, they die. Stop global warming.' The children were directed to www.aicmedindia.org with information about steps to fight global warming. They also got an invitation to join the initiative as volunteers.

Results

91% of all participating children vowed to prevent global warming. The website received over 10,000 hits. Over 300 children joined AICMED as summer volunteers. The volunteers took to the streets to spread awareness among pedestrians about the dos and don'ts of global warming.