Global Warming Wake Up Call

George W Bush is targeted in an environment-focused TV ad launched this month by Avaaz.org, a new online network. The TV ad, run in Paris, Berlin, Washington DC, and Delhi and rapidly gaining exposure on YouTube, is designed to enable citizens from every country to demand that G8 leaders commit to bold greenhouse gas emissions reductions to prevent catastrophic climate change.

The TV ad is set in the bedrooms of three G8 leaders. A ticking alarm clock sits beside his bed alongside a photograph of an oil well. George W. Bush lies asleep in bed, holding a teddy bear with one hand. Vladimir Putin lies in his bed with a gun in his hand. Jacques Chirac lies asleep in his bed, his toes twitching. The voiceover: “Global warming is here but our leaders just won’t wake up. Now you can sound the alarm. Go to AVAAZ.org to give your leader a wake-up call.”

Click on the image below to play the video.

The campaign is sponsored by Avaaz.org, a new online network that provides opportunities for citizens of every country to take concerted action on urgent global problems like climate change, poverty, and the crisis in the Middle East. Avaaz.org’s mission is to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people shape global decisions. It aims to launch with 880,000 participants from 198 countries and is already active in 11 languages.

“Our political leaders need to wake up to the fact that we are approaching a point of no return on the nightmare of catastrophic global warming,” said Ricken Patel, the Canadian-British Director of Avaaz.org. “Global public opinion has been called the ‘new superpower’, but there is a huge gap between the world that most people want, and the world we have. The lack of action on climate change is a powerful example of that gap, and Avaaz.org will work to close it.”

The Avaaz.org team hails from five continents. It was co-founded by Res Publica, a global civic advocacy group, and MoveOn.org, an American internet advocacy group. Avaaz worked with Californian film production company, Underground Productions, to develop the Wake Up Call TV ad.

The initial run of TV ads will target Paris, Berlin, Washington, DC, and Delhi. Additional cities may be added as the campaign expands. The ads will run for two weeks, through the February meetings in Germany to set the agenda for July’s G8 Summit. The ad, available for viewing at www.avaaz.org, can be seen in all 11 site languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Korean, Japanese, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Hebrew and Arabic.

“Avaaz” means “voice” in several Asian languages, including Hindi, Urdu and Nepali.