The campaign features more than 60 international celebrities re-recording Midnight Oil’s 1987 tune 'Beds are burning', which is designed to be the soundtrack of the Climate Justice movement. Backed by Kofi Annan, president of the Global Humanitarian Forum and former secretary-general of the United Nations, the campaign precedes the UN’s Copenhagen Climate Change Summit in December.
The 'Tck tck tck: time for climate justice' campaign was initially introduced to global audiences in June at the Cannes International Advertising Festival, and the music video acts as the second phase and focal point of the campaign. Its first phase included a petition which will be used to sway delegates attending the Climate Change Summit. More than 1.3 million people have endorsed the campaign to date.
To publicise the song, which also features ambassadors including Duran Duran, Marion Cotillard, Fergie and Lily Allen, the campaign will have a large focus on social media and will be spread globally on platforms including Facebook, Twitter, MTV, Yahoo Music and iTunes, which will allow the song to be available for free download.
However, a Havas spokeswoman said that special arrangements had to be made to support the campaign in China, which has blocked several key social media sites including Facebook and Youtube.
Instead, Havas has inked deals to broadcast the campaign across “China’s biggest publishers” including Tencent, Youku, Sina and Sohu, and while the campaign is now available globally, China will see the campaign go live on 8 October.
“By downloading ‘Beds are burning’ for free from major music download platforms on the internet, people from around the world will be adding their names to this growing global petition - joining the campaign for climate justice and becoming a climate ally,” Annan said in a statement.
“This will be the first time ever that a musical petition has been created to demand decisive action from our world leaders. I believe it can become the Band Aid for the internet generation,” he continued. “Together, we can create such a noise that our leaders will not be able to ignore it when they meet in Copenhagen this December to agree a new post-Kyoto climate agreement. Good leaders are also good followers.”
