Don’t Choose Extinction!

CANNES – A ferocious, life-like dinosaur roamed the streets and barged in on events at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, cheered on by hundreds of members of the creative community. Brought to Cannes by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), PVBLIC Foundation, and EarthTX, Frankie the Dino stars in the UN agency’s film on climate action called “Don’t Choose Extinction.”

This first-ever film made inside the UN General Assembly using computer-generated imagery (CGI) reached a global audience of 1.8 billion. Thanks to UNDP’s partnership with SAWA Cinema Advertising Association and the Global Cinema Medium, the short film is currently screening as an ad for eight weeks in movie theaters across 30 countries in 16 languages.

Off-screen, Frankie the Dino became the week’s main attraction. As the utahraptor strolled the Palais de Festivals and took an occasional beach walk, crowds of creatives lined up for selfies.

Frankie was brought to life by EarthX, the official non-profit media partner of UNDP’s Don’t Choose Extinction campaign together with the Social Revolt Agency. EarthX convenes one of the world’s largest environmental gatherings with its annual Earth Day Expo and conferences in Dallas, Texas. Later this summer, EarthX will launch EarthXTV, an environmental television network, on cable in the United States and UK.

“Bringing Frankie to life at Cannes Lions is a perfect example of how multiple platforms can be used to amplify the world’s most impactful – and creative – environmental campaigns. The creative community should step up to the challenge and use its impressive abilities and minds to get this message out: we only have one earth and the time to act is now,” said Boaz Paldi, Chief Creative Officer at UNDP.