WWF | EARTH HOUR | 2007
In Just One Hour, They Proved They Could Move the World / WWF "EARTH HOUR"
On March 31, 2007, 2.2 million people in Sydney switched off their lights all at once — a way of showing that they were serious about climate change, at a time when skepticism still hung in the air. This single hour of action has since spread around the world, 20 years on.
The problem
In 2004, WWF Australia and Leo Burnett Sydney asked themselves a question: how do you get people to see climate change as their own problem? Rather than scaring people into action, they searched for a way to bring people in positively, and landed on the idea of switching off electricity on a massive scale. The original name, "The Big Flick," was rejected as uncool, and they eventually settled on "Earth Hour."
The insight
One early idea was more extreme: leave the lights on only at the Prime Minister's residence, to shame them publicly. But that would only create conflict. Instead, they chose an open approach that anyone could join. Even without the right to vote, even without any interest in politics, you could make your voice heard just by flipping a switch. Gather enough small actions together, and you can move a whole city's power consumption.
The idea
At 19:30 on March 31, 2007, 2.2 million people in Sydney — 56% of the city's residents — along with 2,100 businesses switched off their lights. The Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, even the McDonald's sign went dark, and power consumption dropped by 10.2%. "I thought it wasn't that big a deal," the creator recalls. "Just an idea to turn off the lights and show that it could make a difference."
What happened
The campaign won a Titanium Lion and two Gold Lions at Cannes. The following year, in 2008, it spread internationally, with 50 million people across 35 countries taking part, and the lights went dark at both the Golden Gate Bridge and the Colosseum. Now, marking its 20th anniversary, more than 300 million hours of action have been gathered from around the world.
Afterthought
"Turning off your lights for an hour won't save the planet" — that's a fair point. And yet in Russia, a petition campaign that grew out of this led to a law protecting the oceans from pollution, and in the Galápagos, plastic bags were banned. The simple act of switching off your lights for just one hour became a kind of vote that anyone could cast. I'm still in awe of the quiet power of that idea.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2007
