Creative agency TheOr has launched a series of not-so-scenic screensavers in support of Friends of the Earth as world leaders meet at global climate conference Cop28.
The screensavers are deliberately unpleasant to look at and have been designed to raise awareness of environmental damage and encourage people to switch off their screens when not in use.
Created by photographers from TheOr, the screensavers feature images such as a dead donkey, butchered meat and dead flies – all carefully designed to be disgusting enough to make people switch their phones off entirely.
Using a screensaver uses up to 10 times more power than when a device is in sleep mode.
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The creatives who designed the campaign Amy Fasey and Jacob Hellström described the screensavers as a “simple prompt” in a world where tackling climate change can seem overwhelming at times.
The campaign coincides with recent broader campaign efforts from Friends of the Earth at COP28, with the NGO’s international climate campaigner saying: “With communities across the world increasingly battered by droughts, storms and heatwaves, politicians at home and abroad must step up to the plate and urgently address the climate crisis.”
Friends of the Earth is not the only campaign group turning to provocative campaigns in the wake of COP28 – with Greenpeace recently attacking Dove and Channel 4’s carbon skidmark ad inciting a range of public responses.
