In 2019 SS4C hosted a National Climate Strike, causing outrage across the country. Politicians, public figures, and the media condemned students for missing a day off school.

Instead of addressing their concerns, then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison criticised students, calling for “more learning, less activism”.

Despite the rebuke, students were emboldened by the extraordinary attention generated for the cause and SS4C became famous across Australia.

By 2022, however, the group’s momentum had all but vanished from the public arena as media coverage turned instead to the post-pandemic cost of living crisis.

Our brief was to help SS4C reinvigorate their call to action for 2023 with a communications idea that would earn an outsized share of attention, and alert Australia of the ongoing threat of the climate crisis.

The education system requires a medical certificate to explain your absence from school.

So, we created a sick note signed by a different kind of doctor. Doctors of Environmental Science – who recognise the importance of protesting for the planet.

Anyone can go online, enter their name and download their personalised certificate. When their school questions their attendance on the day of The National Climate Strike, students can present the Climate Doctors certificate as a defiant symbol of activism that demonstrates that the climate is more important than the classroom.

Students who miss school tend to be punished for their action, even if their absence is for a worthy cause. Our solution needed to not only provide a safety buffer for students but ensure that the discussion maintained its focus on the issue at hand - climate change.

We gave students permission to take a sick day for a sick planet by creating a new kind of doctor’s certificate. The Climate Doctor’s Certificate looked and sounded like a regular doctor’s certificate you would get from a GP, except it was signed by prominent climate PHDs including Doctor David Karoly, councillor on the Climate Council of Australia and professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne, and Dr. Nick Abel, honorary associate professor at ANU College of Science.

Doctor’s Certificate Launch

We launched a website where students could download a personalised Doctor’s sick note so they could skip school & attend National Climate Rallies happening across the country.

PR

Doctors and SS4C leaders became spokespeople for the campaign, raising unprecedented awareness of the certificates & the rallies.

The National Climate Strike

Tens of thousands of students turned out in major cities across the country, using our Doctor’s Certificate to skip school & protest.

After years of declining coverage of climate protests, the sick note fired up the media. And before students had marched out of the classroom to make their voices heard, their sick notes were already protesting for them.

In one week, the campaign reached 


- 2.1 billion impressions.

- Media and PR coverage across 26 countries

- $58 million in earned media.

- $0 media spend.