Coca-Cola and WWF announce new Arctic Home campaign

Coca-Cola and WWF have joined forces to launch Arctic Home, a new project focused on raising awareness and funds to help conserve the home of the polar bear and create a positive future for the Arctic.

The polar bear has been a long-standing icon across Coca-Cola advertising for ninety years and represents family and togetherness for the brand, which is why the Coca-Cola is pledging €3 million over the next three years towards helping to preserve their Arctic home.

The funds raised will help in a variety of ways, including conservation planning for the Last Ice Area - an area of over 1.4 million sq. kms. in northern Greenland and northern Canada – a region bigger than France and Spain combined.

The integrated campaign was launched at an event held at the Science Museum, London on 17th January and a new TV commercial will hit television screens from 2nd February. Further amplification around the campaign will also be seen across print advertising and the famous Piccadilly Circus sign, as well as digital elements including a dedicated website and social media activity.

The Arctic Home project will see the largest number of European markets ever come together to support such a large-scale campaign to raise awareness and funds for a common cause, with sixteen markets launching in the coming weeks. To help further bring the Arctic closer to home for consumers, more than 300 million Coca-Cola cans packs across Europe will also feature the image of a mother polar bear and her two cubs making their way across the Arctic.

Arctic Home forms part of a global partnership between Coca-Cola and WWF, which focuses on working towards cutting the Company’s carbon emissions, water conservation and sustainable agriculture.

The project will also raise awareness of how the Arctic is being affected by climate change - it is currently warming twice as fast as the global average and sea ice is disappearing at a rate of about 11% each decade. This shrinking sea ice is threatening the future of the polar bear.

Zoe Howorth, Marketing Director for Coca-Cola GB said: "Polar bears have been a much-loved part of Coca-Cola's iconic advertising for over ninety years and because of our strong tie with them we want to help create a future for them and their Arctic home. For the last few years, we've worked with WWF firstly through the Polar Bear Support Fund and more recently via the launch of Arctic Home in North America, to help conserve polar bears home in the Arctic.

"We are really excited to be building on this partnership with the launch of the Arctic Home campaign here in the UK. We believe that by combining our two organisations' strengths and resources with the support and involvement of the general public, we'll be able to go beyond what we each could achieve on our own".

David Nussbau, Chief Executive for WWF-UK said: "Climate warming is causing a rapid melting of the sea ice on which polar bears and other Arctic species depend. It is predicted that the summer sea ice will virtually disappear within a generation. As the ice continues to melt, polar bears will increasingly struggle to hunt to keep themselves and their cubs alive over the summer months.

"The roll out of the Arctic Home campaign with Coca-Cola in Europe is great news as it gives us a real opportunity to raise mass awareness about the threats to the Arctic and vital funds to help us tackle some of the challenges being faced. It’s only through working in partnership that sustainable change will take place: we believe that if we all act now, together we can protect the home of the Arctic polar bear.”

Coca-Cola and WWF are calling for everyone to find out more, get involved or donate by visiting www.arctichome.com.