We are proud to have spearheaded the PSA campaign “Letter to Grandpa”, an animation intentionally designed to hit a nerve and activate older, conservative voters over the Climate Crisis. This Media project was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, in that we used the communication style of children to speak to a generation of grandparents in the run-up to this presidential election. Utilizing social media, this effort was aimed at 55+ men who like fishing and have grandchildren.
Created with funding from the New Paltz, New York branch of the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion, this project entailed a strategic plan for utilizing a very small budget efficiently, and targeting only voters who might be amenable to this message. A 60 second animation was developed to pull viewers in quickly with an onslaught of disaster imagery, hand-drawn in a child’s style with crayons, and supported perfectly with a voice over of a child reading a letter to his grandfather. In the impassioned reading, the child lists the reasons why he’s fearful of going out fishing, reflected in the harrowing rotoscope visuals of a landscape battered by storms, rains, fires, floods, homes washed away and lots of dead animals and fish. It’s a lot to take in during the first 30 seconds, softened as it were by the child-like rendering and voice over.
The animation itself is a source of pride for Young Mind Interactive. Creative Director Jeffrey Wiener and his team of young animators used their iPads and the newest animation APP called “Dreams” released by the software company Procreate to produce this in just 45 days. The strategy behind the concept of the animation was to use the expressionistic style of children’s coloring with crayons to communicate the overwhelming emotional impact that Climate Crisis might have on their young minds, making these topics easier to absorb. Using the technique of a rotoscope style fly-through through a frightening landscape of natural disasters and destruction. The animation is narrated by a young child who is reading a letter to his grandpa about his fears. The animation is linked to a “child-like” website at www.LetterToGrandpa.info with resources for activated users, which allowed the team to track engagement from the social posts, and to converse/debate with readers making comments on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Credits:
Creative Director: Jeffrey Wiener
Production Assistant: Nya Reebe
Procreate/Dreams Animators: Nya Reebe, Samiya Ramos, Donavan Dubose
STILLS & STATS
