Moms Against Climate Change campaign hits a (really big) wall

Advocacy group projects over 1,800 photographs of children onto office buildings in Ottawa and Vancouver to raise awareness about climate change as world leaders gather in Copenhagen.

By Katie Bailey
December 11, 2009

If almost 2000 photographs of Canadian children projected onto the sides of buildings in major cities don’t get Prime Minister Stephen Harpers attention, then we don’t really know what will.

In a public stunt orchestrated by NGOs Environmental Defence and Forest Ethics – with installation handled by Langley-based The Media Merchants – passersby in Ottawa and Vancouver last night would have seen a large-scale projection of thousands of children’s faces onto a downtown office building in each city. Each building was selected for its suitability for projection, its location and its unique look, Jennifer Foulds, communications manager, Environmental Defence, told MiC yesterday.

The stunt is a culmination of months-long public awareness campaign by organizations called ‘Moms Against Climate Change.’ The campaign, developed by Toronto’s zig, started with a PSA that achieved modest viral success, with almost 40,000 views to date on YouTube, and airplay on Canwest networks, CTV and The Weather Network. It features children in a Seattle-style protest marching on police clad in SWAT gear, with the tagline ‘If children knew the facts we do, they’d take action. Shouldn’t you?’

The video promotes viewers to check out the website, where they are urged to upload photos of their children to represent that climate change is an issue that will affect their future.

Those photos, almost 2000 of them, are now what make up the large-scale projections in Ottawa and Vancouver. A Toronto installation will be executed tomorrow near Queen’s Park and possibly, Foulds said, one in Copenhagen before the summit closes.

The goal of the three-city stunt is to not only harness the attention of the Prime Minister and other Canadian politicians via publicity drummed up by the stunt, but to engage the public, Foulds said.

‘Our other goal [in addition to political activism] is for people who are passing by these photo walls in Ottawa and Vancouver in very public areas, to see these photos of children and to be drawn into the issue of global warming and making it real. We’re not talking about obscure targets and pollution and this stuff that is often very difficult and dry, but we’re talking about real children and their future.’

The campaign is also being promoted via a Facebook media buy, handled by Environmental Defence and Forest Ethics.