It’s definitely not fair and balanced. It’s also not real. WWF Canada has launched a new, newscast-style campaign to create public awareness of what it says are the risks of Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline.
Enbridge’s proposed 1,176-kilometre pipeline would cut through British Columbia’s ecologically sensitive Great Bear Region and is expected to carry up to 525,000 barrels of oil a day from the northern Alberta tar sands to Kitimat, B.C.
According to WWF Canada, it will also bring as many as 220 super-sized oil tankers into B.C.’s coastal waters each year
“The Inevitable News,” the campaign from Toronto agency John St., is housed on the WWF Canada Facebook page (which currently has just over 89,000 followers) and its YouTube channel.
The first full-length execution, posted Monday, features the Inevitable News team using on-the-scene reports and computer graphics to report on what the WWF says is inevitable if the pipeline is constructed – an oil tanker crash that spills thousands of barrels of oil into B.C.’s coastal waters.
The one-and-a-half minute video concludes with the tag “Stop the inevitable. Stop the Northern Gateway Pipeline.”
“It seemed like a natural solution to create this station to report on the inevitable, because even the Enbridge people have themselves said that accidents will happen,” said Stephen Jurisic, creative director at John St. “It was a nice way to show the area. It’s pretty hard to imagine tankers the size of the Empire State Building cruising through here.”
“The Inevitable News” will be updated with new reports as the “unfolding disaster” progresses, said Jurisic. The Facebook videos will also be amplified by the Twitter feed @Inevitablenews.
While the campaign’s emphasis on social media means it will appeal somewhat more to a younger audience, Jurisic said it is intended to “open the eyes” of all Canadians who may not be familiar with the Great Bear Region.
“It’s a pretty strong stance, which is why we’re excited about it,” he said. “We could have just talked about how beautiful the region is and let’s stop the pipeline, but I think doing it in this way creates more engagement.”
WWF Canada is also urging Canadians to write or email their local MP to voice their opposition to the Northern Gateway Pipeline.
