Dispatches on Climate and Health

Wellcome is a global charitable foundation established in 1936. Its work includes supporting science to solve the urgent health issues facing everyone – particularly when it comes to climate change, infectious disease and mental health. Climate change poses an immense health challenge to the world’s population. Extreme weather events caused by climate change have led to an increase in death and sickness, with diseases spreading more quickly, and lower crop yields leading to food insecurity, globally. Wellcome sought to highlight that the climate and health crisis is not a distant prospect, but a daily reality for many communities around the world. Yet, we don’t often hear from these communities on the frontline, many of which are coming up with creative and community-based initiatives to mitigate climate change's impact on health. In anticipation of COP28, Wellcome approached New York Times Advertising to help communicate the ways health should be put at the heart of climate action conversation. Recognising our strength in climate reporting, our event presence at COP and our branded content studio’s unique ability to help people understand global topics, Wellcome sought to leverage the power of our platform. Our task was clear: in a compelling and visual way, turn The New York Times platform into a stage to amplify the voices of communities and leaders directly affected by, and actively combatting, the daily challenges posed by climate-induced health crises. Our original art direction captured the urgency of the subject matter with strong typography, effective colors and a responsive card-based structure where we mixed static imagery, short looping videos, quotes and statistics that were curated for a seamless reader experience to complement our detailed reporting. “Dispatches on Climate and Health” is a 360 creative content programme that came to life across short and long-form storytelling in digital, 30-second audio snippets on our iconic podcast, The Daily, and a print four-page spread and cover wrap of The New York Times newspaper, which was distributed at the COP28 event. It combines our reporting prowess with our innovative approach to visual storytelling, utilizing an impressive method on our immersive print and digital platforms.