TikTok campaign encouraging users to Buzz and GIVEUP has garnered almost three million views so far

India, 28 March 2019: As Earth Hour 2019 draws closer, TikTok, the world's leading short video platform, and WWF-India will celebrate together with millions of supporters across the country.


Encouraging its users to ‘buzz and GIVEUP’ unsustainable practices, TikTok the official online media partner for WWF-India’s #Bee4ThePlanet challenge in India, aims to encourage people from all walks of life to come together and pledge their support for the cause of biodiversity conservation by helping reduce plastic pollution, paper and water wastage.


The Earth Hour India 2019 campaign of WWF India aims to inspire millions across the country to use their talent and creativity on TikTok to shift to more sustainable practices of living in order to minimize their negative impact on the planet. With creativity at the centerfold, TikTok users are inspired to help generate “buzz for the planet”, using the fun bee sticker created especially for this campaign along with the hashtag ‘Bee4ThePlanet’. Users have already published videos to show their support, which has almost 3 million views on TikTok. Its users also can share their creative videos with their friends and family to bring together like-minded people from across the country to buzz for collective action for change. By buzzing like the bee with the hashtag and sticker, WWF India and TikTok hope to remind people that by coming together and creating a buzz, significant change take place when united by a single thread, much like the bees that work in unison.


Earth Hour is the world’s largest, environmental grassroots movement in history, connecting hundreds of millions of people all over the planet. Celebrating people’s commitment across the globe to fight the threats against declining biodiversity, skylines around the world will go dark on Saturday 30 March 8:30 p.m. local time, as millions of people come together to commemorate the hour. As nature declines like never before, coupled with the ever-present challenge of climate change, Earth Hour 2019 will focus on raising awareness on why nature matters and inspiring global action on conserving nature.


Nature, underpinned by biodiversity, provides us a wealth of services that form the building blocks of modern society. However, according to the Living Planet Report 2018, we are living through the Great Acceleration – a unique event in the 4.5 billion-year history of our planet – with exploding human populations and economic growth driving unprecedented planetary change through increased demand for energy, land and water. Over the past 50 years, the global ecological footprint (one measure of our consumption of natural resources) has increased by over 190%. The Living Planet Index suggests that India’s ecological footprint per person is less than 1.75 global hectares/person (which is the lowest bracket and is smaller than that of many large countries). However, India’s high population levels make it likely that the country would face a widening ecological deficit even if current per-capita levels of resource consumption remain the same.


“We are excited to have partnered with the WWF-India to celebrate Earth Hour 2019, one of the most successful environmental protection related campaigns in the world, with over 180 countries participating. As a part of our commitment to users with fun engaging challenges, through this campaign, we hope to do our part and encourage our users to leverage their talent and creativity to participate and spread the word in raising awareness on the need for biodiversity conservation,” said Sumedhas Rajgopal, Senior Manager, Strategy and Partnerships, TikTok.  


Speaking about the campaign, Mr. Ravi Singh, Secretary General & CEO, WWF-India said, “Earth Hour is about people coming together to celebrate the planet and raise awareness about the need to protect it. This partnership with TikTok will help us reach out to the young populace of India, the future leaders of tomorrow and build new constituencies of supporters who will take forward the message of conservation in the years to come.”


Launched in 2018, the GIVEUP to Give Back initiative has seen individuals, organizations, corporations, schools and governments set their GIVEUP initiatives as voluntary actions and policies to bring about sustainable change. Earth Hour 2019 will build the momentum further with its focus on asking citizens and organizations to GIVEUP single use plastic, paper and water wastage and contribute to the betterment of the planet.

###
About TikTok: TikTok is the world's leading destination for short-form mobile videos. Our mission is to capture and present the world's creativity, knowledge and moments that matter in everyday life. TikTok empowers everyone to be a creator directly from their smartphones and is committed to building a community by encouraging users to share their passion and creative expression through their videos. TikTok has offices in Beijing, Berlin, Jakarta, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo. In early 2018, TikTok was one of the most downloaded apps in the world. TikTok is available worldwide for iOS and Android. Visit www.tiktok.com.

About WWF: WWF is one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, with over five million supporters and a global network active in more than 100 countries. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the earth’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. For  more information please log onto www.wwfindia.org


About Earth Hour: Earth Hour is WWF's global environmental movement. Started in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour has grown to become the world's largest grassroots movement for the environment, inspiring individuals, communities, businesses and organizations in over 170 countries and territories to take tangible climate action. Celebrating a decade of its signature lights out event in March 2017, the Earth Hour movement continues to harness the power of its millions of supporters to shine a light on climate action and the power of the individual to change climate change. For more information, please log onto earthhour.in