ABSTRACT
Recent print advertisements from the UK Government’s Act on CO2 climate campaign (2009) attempt to give cultural meaning to climate change by rewriting children’s nursery rhymes to subvert their original message. ‘Twinkle, Twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are’, is revised to continue: ‘up above the world so high, looking down at dangerously high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere’ (UK Government 2009). In another example, ‘Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water’, continues: ‘There was none, as extreme drought due to climate change had caused a drought’ (ibid). The advertisements play with concepts of time and cultural memory. The focus upon children is a way of bringing the impacts of future climate change into the present, while the use of traditional line drawings to illustrate the text evokes the nostalgia of childhood memories, intensifying the feelings of (actual and potential) loss for the adult audience. The advertisements look forward to the future and hark back to the past in order to make climate change meaningful in the present.
