Photo Credit: Markus Spiske
Studio Birthplace creative directors Sil van der Woerd and Jorik Dozy have made their third appearance on Little Black Book, this time in an article where LBB’s Zoe Antonov spoke to experts across the industry to find out what progress has been made in regards to agencies and brands’ commitments to the environment, as well as what 2023 holds.
An excerpt from the article:
Sil van der Woerd and Jorik Dozy, creative directors at Studio Birthplace who work directly with scientists, researchers and change drivers on their films, explain that “we’re losing wildlife species 1,000-10,000 times faster than before the industrial revolutions” and we have in fact lost 70% of wildlife on land since the ‘70s. We are on course for three to four degrees Celsius warming by the end of the century, not the original 1.5 expectation. This is why in their own way, the creators at Studio Birthplace and their production partner Park Village do everything to protect the integrity of their voice within the industry.
“Advertising has played and continues to play a pivotal role in misdirecting the public deeper into the climate emergency, by promoting products that we shouldn't necessarily buy because those products and businesses often ignore the sometimes devastating environmental, animal and human suffering that are invisible to consumers from their end products,” say Sil and Jorik. “But of course advertising can also have a huge influence in changing behaviour for the better. These behavioural change campaigns, inspiring a positive outcome for the planet and people are what we’re interested in investing our time and talent in. We want to direct work that makes a difference to how people see the climate crisis, and this would mean working with agencies and brands that genuinely want to develop their messaging and processes to make a positive impact, without it being just greenwashing or lip service to the issue of the day.” The key, to them, is putting the planet and the people before any profit, to better research clients on their production process and product impact and to say a firm ‘no’ to polluting and greenwashing clients.
They continue, “This is so much more important to us than just trying to figure out how we can produce more sustainably, which is admirable, but somewhat of a distraction to the key issue. Because what does the word ‘sustainability’ really mean? Everyone has a sustainability tab on their webpage these days, but what are we trying to sustain? The polluting, exploiting status quo? We don't need sustainability; we need a climate positive approach. Sustainability shouldn’t be an afterthought, slapped on retrospectively so we can sleep at night.”
The full article can be read here.