The BBC used the spectacular billboard to highlight deforestation and global warming while promoting David Attenborough’s new program, ‘A Perfect Planet’.
The billboard was set up in the northern English city of Manchester, where flames (actually “environmentally friendly vapor”) appear to burn above half of the ad.
A Perfect Planet has five episodes, each exploring the impact of volcanoes, the weather, the sun, and oceans on the natural world, as well as the environmental cost of human industry.
The first half of the billboard read ‘A Perfect Planet’, while the second, which depicts a burning forest, asked ‘But For How Long?’.
Michael Tsim, a creative at BBC told The Drum that, “the BBC wanted it to be a bigger campaign focusing on climate change, to tie into its new climate change programming…while we did the usual series trailer and campaign, we also got to have fun by subverting it and doing something different.”
The billboard was a joint project between BBC Creative and Talon Outdoor.
It’s not the first time the BBC has gotten creative with their billboards. In January last year, the BBC promoted the Stephen Moffat/Mark Gatiss helmed ‘Dracula’ TV show using a similar tactic.
While during the day the billboard looked like it was simply impaled by stakes, as the sun set, a silhouette of Dracula’s face was revealed.
‘A Perfect Planet’ has been picked up by Channel Nine, but a release date has not been set.
