Earth Hour
WWF (WWF-Australia)2007
Earth Hour is a 2007 mass-participation event for WWF, created by Leo Burnett, Sydney.
Why it works
An ad that switched a city off. On 31 March 2007, WWF-Australia, Leo Burnett Sydney and The Sydney Morning Herald asked Sydney to turn off its lights for one hour from 7.30pm, a show of public concern aimed at a government sceptical about climate change. The Opera House, Harbour Bridge and Luna Park went dark, and the Coca-Cola sign at Kings Cross was switched off for the first time since 1974; organisers counted more than 2.2 million people and 2,000 businesses taking part. A year later 50 million people in 35 countries joined in; by 2009 it was 88 countries and more than 4,000 cities, and it has since become an annual ritual involving thousands of landmarks. At Cannes 2007 it won a Titanium Lion. It is studied as a brand-built ritual — a simple, symbolic act anyone can join, owned by one organisation and renewed every year — whose power lies in mobilisation rather than in the modest energy it saves.
Techniques
- Participation Asks everyone to do one simple, symbolic thing: switch off their lights for an hour.
- Purpose and cause Turns public concern about climate change into a visible act aimed at a government sceptical of the issue.
- Bandwagon Draws its power from mobilisation, as famous landmarks go dark and the event grows each year across countries and cities.
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