Globo TV campaign takes on global warming

Brazil's Rede Globo, the world's No. 4 TV network, will target teenagers in a long-term drive to raise global warming awareness, a network executive said.

The campaign, to be announced before an anticipated audience of 1,800 at the opening of the State of the World Forum Tuesday in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, is expected to include new dramatic storylines involving global warming in several hugely popular "telenovela" soap opera miniseries, Albert Alcouloumbre, Globo's planning and social programs director, told United Press International.

The storyline changes -- which will be determined by the writers and directors -- will likely be placed in the highly popular teen-focused "Malhacao" ("Working Out"), set at a high school in a shopping mall, Alcouloumbre said.

Other telenovelas aimed at adolescents and young adults will also likely incorporate environmental messages in their storylines, he said.

The media campaign, which Globo is donating to the forum, will also include a "permanent" public service TV campaign and increased environmental news coverage, Alcouloumbre said.

The first two PSAs, which start airing Wednesday, show a split screen, with video of natural beauty on one side and climate-related destruction on the other.

As the destruction side takes up more and more of the screen, an announcer says in Portuguese: "Global warming will change our planet if we don't act now. Which side you are on?"

An Earth logo then shows, "2020: I'm In," a slogan the forum plans to use worldwide.

English versions will be posted online.

The TV campaign will be supported by environmental teacher lesson plans Globo will provide to more than 7,000 mostly rural public schools nationwide, Alcouloumbre said.

Brazilian TV expert Joseph Straubhaar, a University of Texas communications professor, told UPI he suspects the campaign, "particularly the telenovela 'social-marketing' component, will be pretty powerful."

With Globo a major programming exporter, the campaign will also likely be seen in dozens of other countries, including the United States, Straubhaar said.

Spanish-language U.S. broadcaster Univision, which imports Globo shows, can be viewed by "close to three-quarters of the U.S. Hispanic market," he said.

And Globo is very effective at cross-promotion, Straubhaar said.

Walt Disney Co., the world's largest media and entertainment conglomerate, "is about the only outfit that cross-promotes better than these guys, and I'm not sure I'd give Disney the edge," he told UPI.