Coca-Cola is pledging to give $4 million to conservation group WWF over next three years to launch Arctic Home, a campaign to conserve the Arctic, haven of the polar bear.
Launching on 17th January, the pan-European campaign will combine WWF’s conservation expertise with Coca-Cola’s marketing experience to help protect the home of the polar bear, which is under threat from climate change.
The funds will be used in conservation planning for the Last Ice Area – an area of over 1.4 million square kilometers in northern Greenland and northern Canada. The funds will also help WWF study the polar bear numbers and habitat and help Arctic human communities living harmoniously with polar bears and encouraging governments to hold a summit.
Coca-Cola will promote the initiative with a campaign, including a new TV commercial in Europe and more than 300 million special-edition Coca-cola packs and cans will show a polar bear family traveling across the Arctic.
Scientists say the Arctic is getting warm rapidly and the shrinking sea ice threatens many Arctic ecosystems and species, including polar bears. The polar bears are projected to dramatically shrink over the next several decades due to climate change.
“Polar bears have been a much-loved part of Coca-Cola's advertising for over 90 years. We want to help create a future for them and their Arctic home”, said Zoe Howorth, Coca-Cola’s GB marketing director.
Polar bears first appeared in a Coca-Cola print ad in 1922 and in a commercial called "Northern Lights" in 1993, and have been a long-standing icon across Coca-Cola advertising for 90 years.
Watch: Coca-Cola Polar Bears Commercial 2013
