National Geographic announces that ACTIVATE: THE GLOBAL CITIZEN MOVEMENT, the six-part documentary series from National Geographic and Procter & Gamble, co-produced by Global Citizen and RadicalMedia, will premiere 8 September 2019 at 20:00.
ACTIVATE is a multiplatform storytelling partnership and six-part documentary series — bolstered by custom content distributed across National Geographic’s unrivaled social, digital, linear and print channels. It will raise awareness about extreme poverty, inequality and sustainability issues to mobilize Global Citizens to drive meaningful and lasting change on the Global Citizen platform.
Each episode delves into a different issue connected to the root causes of extreme poverty, following a specific Global Citizen campaign and the organizers, amplifiers, grassroots activists, action takers and people whose lives are being changed. Episode topics include eradicating extreme poverty, ending cash bail, breaking down barriers to girls’ education, funding education for displaced children, ending plastic pollution and helping solve the water crisis.
ACTIVATE will take audiences from the Global Citizen Festival stages to the front lines of change around the world while spotlighting real-time efforts to address issues related to extreme poverty. Through the eyes of activists including Hugh Jackman, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Becky G, Usher, Common, Rachel Brosnahan, Gayle King, Bonang Matheba, Pharrell Williams, Darren Criss and Uzo Aduba, and told through the iconic storytelling lens of National Geographic, viewers will hear the stories, meet the people and witness first-hand the work that is being done to combat extreme poverty and inspire a global movement.
The series has been filmed in Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines and South Africa, and across the United States in California, New York, Tennessee and Washington, D.C.
The ACTIVATE partnership is the result of a shared commitment National Geographic, P&G and Global Citizen have made to leverage their collective influence, audience and scale to both raise awareness and inspire a global community to take action.
For more than 10 years, Global Citizen has been working to defeat extreme poverty through advocacy and citizen engagement, motivating businesses, organizations and governments to make financial commitments and policy changes to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and eradicate extreme poverty by 2030. At the same time, P&G has a rich history of leveraging its brands and its people as a force for good to make the world a better place by helping solve critical issues related to girls’ education, clean drinking water, disaster relief, sustainability and inequality. And for more than 130 years, National Geographic has utilized its powerful imagery and impact storytelling to help audiences around the globe understand the world around them so that, in turn, they care more about it.
The multiplatform ACTIVATE storytelling partnership will expand beyond the documentary series to include a 10-page custom print section for ACTIVATE in the September issue of National Geographic magazine as well as custom story stretches aligned to each episode, custom digital articles and social media moments highlighting various issues within ACTIVATE.
The partnership will also include digital hubs on NatGeo.com and GlobalCitizen.org for viewers who would like to dive deeper into the six critical issues highlighted in the series. Viewers will be able to take action on Global Citizen campaigns, earn rewards and learn more about P&G’s brand impact efforts led by Tide, Always, Head & Shoulders, Charmin and more.
The ACTIVATE series will illustrate experimentation with new content and distribution models, and new ways to mobilize viewers across the world.
“The issues highlighted by ACTIVATE have a real place here in Africa, and we look forward to engaging with audiences through the series and our digital platforms to stimulate positive change” said Evert Van Der Veer, for Media Networks, The Walt Disney Company, Africa.
