GREENPEACE | Los Santos +3ºC | 2022
They flooded a GTA city to show what global warming looks like / GREENPEACE "Los Santos +3ºC"
For four days, a city on a GTA role-play server was underwater. And it was Greenpeace's doing.
The problem
Greenpeace Brazil picked the stage: Los Santos, the city from Grand Theft Auto V. The case video describes this as one of the most popular games around.
The insight
If lectures won't get through, why not change the very place where people are already playing for real? The idea was to take their own science team's future projections and build that climate scenario directly into the game's city.
The idea
They rebuilt Los Santos with the temperature up by 3 degrees celsius. Streets are submerged, reservoirs have dried up, the air is polluted, and plant and animal life has sharply declined. Billboards around the city have been swapped for future ads urging people to save water if they still have any, and the radio reports that two people died fighting over drinking water at the pier. Players are given special missions: sign a petition, deliver water to a shelter, help climate refugees. This map was made playable on the Kings Roleplay server only from February 22 to 25, 2022.
What happened
According to the case video, popular Brazilian streamers broadcast it for more than 450 hours combined, petition signatures rose 340%, donations rose 40%, and media exposure reached 30 million. Outlets like CNN covered it too. At Cannes Lions 2022, it won Gold in both Entertainment and Entertainment Lions for Sport.
Afterthought
Instead of making a preachy campaign, they rewrote the city where everyone was already playing. The moment a streamer drives down a flooded road and blurts out "this is bad," the message has already landed. Makes me want to go play some GTA.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2022
