Turning climate change denial into a game
The Guardian
The Lone Denier
The Guardian, with support from Ben & Jerry’s, decided to run a campaign called ‘Too Hot to Handle’ to bring some much-needed humour to the great climate debate. As part of the campaign, we were challenged with creating some interactive content to bring the issue to life.
Problem
Climate change deniers get a lot of media exposure and their arguments are taken way too seriously. Quite frankly, most of their arguments are a joke. Which is why the Guardian, with support from Ben & Jerry’s, decided to run a campaign called ‘Too Hot to Handle’ to bring some much needed humour to the great climate debate. As part of the campaign, we were challenged with creating some interactive content to bring the issue to life.
Solution
Never ones to shy away from a LOL, we developed two interactive features. The first feature ‘The Lone Denier’ reimagined the arcade game classic, Space Invaders. The online game puts the user in the position of the lone climate change denier, who uses his petrol pump to fight-off the overwhelming onslaught of scientific evidence. The second feature ‘D.N.Y.R’ involved a giant robot who, on the press of a button, regurgitates some of the more farcical quotes from climate change deniers.
Impact
The ‘Too Hot to Handle’ hub was a huge success for the Guardian. The two interactive features were some of the most shared content on the hub, receiving over 9,000 shares in total and, hopefully, getting up the nose of many climate change deniers.
