Potential Energy Coalition turns to moms to encourage climate change action

When Eric Asche, 51, grew up in central Florida, the storms were much milder than they are now, he said.

“Storms were tropical storms or Category 1,” said Asche, president of Potential Energy Coalition, a nonprofit focused on marketing to increase public awareness of climate change. “Now it feels like every single hurricane that comes through is Category 4, threatening to be a Category 5. The devastating toll is astronomical.”

The nonprofit now hopes mothers can also serve as a powerful force in encouraging people to take action against climate change. The group’s Science Moms brand recently launched a $3.5 million campaign, Enough is Enough.

They are targeting moms because they usually “make the largest decisions for families,” Asche said. The message the group hopes to convey is that “we empathize and identify with the challenges they have of trying to take care of their kids in the summertime when they should be outside enjoying themselves being kids.”

The organization launched the campaign amidst a summer filled with extreme heat waves, wildfires, air quality alerts and flooding around the country that are impacting citizens’ health. In Phoenix, temperatures have reached 117 degrees. Climate scientists predict that such days will become more common in the coming years as global temperatures continue to increase.

However, with the new campaign, the organization wanted to avoid a dramatic “overtone or undercurrent.”

“We don’t want to talk and sound like politicians, and we really want to present the conversation the way that we would if we were moms talking to moms about how to protect their kids,” Asche said. 

As such, the 30-second advertisements open with an iPhone-like screen showing a text conversation.

“It’s supposed to be dangerously hot today,” a mom writes.

“Again??” another responds. 

“Sooo AC bill or diapers?”

“So we gotta move.”

The text screen is replaced by an image of a man slumped over a rail and other photos of people struggling in the heat.

“Tired of dealing with extreme heat?” a narrator says. “Scientists agree climate change is making it worse.”

The ad closes with the campaign slogan, “Enough is enough,” and encourages viewers to visit Sciencemoms.com/enough 

The other spots deal with topics that affect people’s healthcare, such as water scarcity, air quality and flooding.

The campaign hopes that moms will “use their voice” to increase awareness of the threat posed by climate change, Asche said.

“The more we socialize and connect the dots with our neighbors and talk about the fact that what’s happening with extreme weather is directly related to climate change, the more it becomes socially acceptable to talk about that kind of thing,” Asche said.

The organization plans to run advertisements and share content across streaming video, social media, email, text messaging, radio, podcasts and billboards. The group will measure its effectiveness by reviewing its social media results such as number of followers and shares, social listening and surveys, Asche said.

The organization created the campaign on its own; Fenton Communications is managing communications. 

This article originally appeared on PRWeek US.