By Alistair Roylance

London(Hollywood Today)9/11/12/—The billboard campaign, the first of its kind, will cover the whole of the UK for two weeks, in hundreds of sites. The aim of the billboards is simple: to get people to spend more time outdoors. The poster depicts a young girl, IVY BOND, licking a frog, with the caption, “Get Into Nature”, along with a link to the campaign website - projectwildthing.com. Running the campaign is filmmaker DAVID BOND, who has appointed himself Marketing Director for Nature, with the sole purpose of explaining the benefits of nature to the nation.

“Big brands like Apple, Shell, BP, all use symbols of nature to advertise their products for a profit. I am advertising nature because it’s good for you and it’s free. The billboard campaign is one small step towards encouraging people to spend less time watching screens, and more time outside.” The project challenges parents and children in towns, cities and the countryside across the UK to leave behind the cosy indoors and get outside into the wild. With the help of advertising and marketing experts, Bond’s goal is to persuade one million children of the benefits of Nature – an amazing, free, wonder-product – in just two weeks.

“According to UNICEF we are raising the unhappiest kids in the developed world. Fewer than 10% of children play in wild places, compared with 50% a generation ago, kids roam far less and half of kids have been stopped from climbing trees, and 20% from playing conkers or tag.

NATIONWIDE BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN LAUNCHES TO SELL NATURE

“The lure of the indoors – with TV, the internet and computer games – is creating a generation that has no connection with the natural world. My kids are 3 and 5 and they scream if I switch off the TV. I’m now fighting to get my kids back before it’s too late. I’ve spoken to teenagers across the UK many of whom say, ‘Why would I want to go outside – staying indoors is much more fun’. I don’t want to hear that from my children. “Spending time outdoors is fun, it’s good for you and it’s free. Given the opportunity, kids love being outdoors. They just need to be given the opportunity. If we don’t act now, a generation of children will miss out on developing a fundamental connection with nature. Without future custodians of the natural world, who will look after our planet 50 years from now?”

Bond’s marketing campaign is being filmed for a documentary. The British feature-length documentary PROJECT WILD THING, is being produced by film company Green Lions, in conjunction with the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation. It is due to be released nationwide in cinemas in Summer 2013.

THE CAMPAIGN KICKS OFF NATIONWIDE ON MONDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2012.

During the 2-week campaign Marketing Director David Bond will also go on national and local radio and TV, appear at Speakers’ Corner, leaflet drop, drive down Oxford Street in a rickshaw with a megaphone, dress as a squirrel and approach people in the street to discuss their nature engagement, visit maternity wards and hand out the Out and About pack (see www.projectwildthing.com), get kids testing our Wild Time app (http://wildtime.projectwildthing.com/), visit the Lambeth County Fair on the Southbank and engage the masses, engage in some old fashion door-to-door sales. The poster (attached) promoting nature will appear on hundreds of billboards around the UK on the September 3rd, courtesy of a donation of outdoor media space by JCDecaux.

The campaign is being filmed as part of an entertaining feature documentary about the issue of Nature Deficit in children, and our changing connection to the natural world. The film will play in cinemas nationwide from early Summer 2013.

A billboard campaign backed by the NHS, and the National Trust begins today – Monday 3rd September – aiming to persuade one million children to enjoy the benefits of Nature.

References:
- http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2812%2961031-9/fulltext#article_upsell
- http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/rc7_eng.pdf
- http://www.unicef.org.uk/Latest/News/Research-shows-UK-children-caught-in-materialistic-trap
- www.naturalengland.org.uk/Images/Childhood%20and%20Nature%20Survey_tcm6-10515.pdf
- Gaster, S. ‘Urban Children’s Access to Their Neighbourhoods: Changes Over Three – Generations’, quoted in Louv, R. (2005) Last Child in the Woods, p.123
- www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/aug/03/schools.children

For further information contact:

Ashley Jones, Producer, Project Wild Thing
ashley@greenlions.com
07881 828 928
www.projectwildthing.com