Greenpeace is giving green-minded filmmakers, both aspiring and professional ones, an opportunity to contribute to its one of the biggest recent climate campaigns. Earlier this summer, the environmental organization launched an initiative against Volkswagen (which strives to become the most eco-friendly car manufacturer), which is opposing cuts to CO2. Greenpeace is calling attention to the company’s environmental policy and encouraging people to sign a letter to Volkswagen’s officials—the organization released ‘Star Wars’ inspired viral spots, launched a dedicated website, dropped spoof dark banners in big cities across the globe and organized demonstrations by VW stormtroopers in European cities including London, Brussels and Wolfsburg to get more ‘jedi’ to join the Rebellion (so far, there are 312,900 people in). Now, the brand is inviting activists to do something bigger than just signing the Manifesto—on September 17, Greenpeace is kicking off an international film contest, asking entrants “to expose the real VW—the one behind the billboards.”
Image: Greenpeace
The brief and additional information will be unveiled on the day of the launch: the details are now kept under wraps. The filmmakers will be challenged to create a one-minute video in two weeks—on its official blog, Greenpeace says that contestants will have to “fuse their creativity with their conscience.” The best submissions, selected by a panel of experts, will be then screened at a special event at the Curzon Soho in London. The finalists will be invited to the screening, and the winner will get £5,000 for creating a film for the next Greenpeace’s campaign. Hopefully, the winning film won’t be banned on the YouTube just like it was with the two ‘VW Dark Side’ parody spots on GreenpeaceVideo page. In any case, the spot has been finally returned.
The organization also teamed up with Chester-based mobile marketing communications leader Txtlocal to spread the work about the campaign in the UK. Greenpeace is sending SMS messages with a link to the ‘Brian the Stormtrooper’ video, thus inviting people to follow the URL and watch the short spot their mobile devices. “Mobile definitely helps in some of our areas of work, for example breaking the news to our supporters quickly when we’re taking direct action, or giving them an easy way to take part in a campaign. Using a paperless, instant form of communication which has less impact on the environment is very important for us, so mobile was a positive choice,” commented Molly Brooks, Digital Marketing Coordinator at Greenpeace.