Former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland
Promoting Norway’s Environmental Leadership
The government of Norway has been a steadfast international leader of peaceful conflict resolution and environmental stewardship. When the Permanent Mission of Norway to the United Nations wanted to promote the country’s decades-long commitment to stemming the tide of climate change, they turned to Roth PR for help. This made sense: Our Communication’s Team has a history of out-of-the-park PR and communications for the government of Norway.
Solution: Norway’s former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland was scheduled to make an important speech before the U.N. General Assembly to kick-off the 15th session of the U.N.’s Commission on Sustainable Development. The timing of her speech coincided with the 20th anniversary of her leadership role as chairman of the World Commission on Environment and Development, known since as the Brundtland Commission, which culminated in a report that documented the pressing need to take sustainable development and environmental stewardship seriously (well before it was cool to do so!). At Roth PR, we had to keep our best news hook – the former Prime Minister’s upcoming appointment by the Secretary General as one of three Special Envoys on Global Warming – under wraps. But by offering the scoop under embargo and tying it to the Brundtland Commission’s 20th anniversary, we were able to secure interviews with top U.S. media outlets.
Results: Roth PR secured significant coverage of Dr. Brundtland’s U.N. speech, appointment and Norway’s role in environmental leadership with feature stories in the New York Times and Associated Press, and on CNN, the BBC and the nationally syndicated radio program “Democracy Now.”