Digital launch for Prince's Rainforests Project

The Prince of Wales will use the power of digital media today to launch the public awareness campaign of his Prince’s Rainforests Project.

The purpose of the campaign is to create a climate of awareness and public concern that encourages action to end tropical deforestation. It urges people to demonstrate their support for action by signing up on the Website RainforestSOS.org.

The focal point of the campaign is a 90-second public awareness film in which His Royal Highness appears alongside his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, an array of well-known figures including Harrison Ford, the Dalai Lama, Daniel Craig, Robin Williams and children from around the world.

Each individual appears alongside an animated frog. The frog, created by Framestore, the Oscar-winning computer generated imagery (CGI) experts behind the film The Golden Compass, serves as a symbol of the rainforest.

The film will be broadcast for the first time today, at 6pm BST, on a variety of Websites, including the social networking site MySpace. As the webcast is transmitted, the public awareness film will be shown at a launch event, attended by The Prince of Wales at London’s National Geographic store.

In order to make the campaign interactive, a digital application enables supporters to create their very own “mash-up” version of the film in which they can appear alongside the frog and well-known figures. The technology has been developed by Moonshine Media and will appear on a new campaign website created by Blue State Digital, the company which provided the proprietary software, as well as the online engagement strategies, for President Barack Obama during the US elections in 2008.

In his Webcast, to be broadcast online before the showing of the film, The Prince of Wales says, “Our aim, with your help, is to build an online community to call, from the bottom up, for urgent action to protect the rainforests, without which we will most certainly lose the battle against catastrophic climate change. One of the Internet’s strengths is that it can enable diverse communities to come together to ensure that everybody’s views and actions can really be made to count. It provides the potential to create global determination for change on a vitally important issue.”