New Campaign and Partnership with MINI USA

We’re pleased to announce that MINI USA is joining us in celebrating Arctic Sea Ice Day, climate solutions, and our new partnership through a creative campaign featuring a polar bear clearly enjoying the ride. The ad features a bear in a MINI Electric Cooper SE Hardtop, part of the company’s commitment to an all-electric line-up of vehicles around 2030.

By launching the campaign as part of our Arctic Sea Ice Day celebration, held each year on July 15th, MINI USA is helping to raise awareness about the polar bears’ melting habitat, why it matters, and how time remains to turn this around. 

“We couldn’t be more grateful for MINI USA’s support of our work on behalf of polar bears and for their focus on sustainability,” said Krista Wright, executive director of Polar Bears International. “Leadership on all levels, from the business community to municipalities and national governments, is critical to slowing global warming, saving sea ice, and ensuring a better future for all of us.”

Rah Mahtani, brand communications manager for MINI USA, said the campaign concept was initially a fun nod to the MINI mascot, Spike the Bulldog, featured in early TV commercials and still used today. MINI USA decided to take it a step further by finding a relevant partnership that allowed the creative to provide more meaning and impact around the issue of sustainability. Thus, the partnership with Polar Bears International was born.

“We hope to inspire MINI USA consumers with a message of sustainability and how together, we can protect our planet,” he said. “The polar bear is an icon of climate change, and we highlight this species in our Big Love Campaign with a number of ways that American consumers can get involved in protecting the planet.”

MINI’s Arctic Sea Ice Day outreach includes drawing attention to an eco-adoption page where American audiences can make a donation in support of Polar Bears International as well as consider the eco-adoption of a polar bear. MINI USA also plans to engage their online community in a "Name the Polar Bear" campaign on their social media platforms, launching July 20th. 

Scientists predict that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, most polar bears could disappear by 2100 due to lack of sea ice. State-of-the art climate models indicate that an ice-free Arctic in summer will likely occur by the middle of the century if greenhouse gas emissions aren’t regulated. Corporate leadership and policy changes that foster sustainable systems will play a critical role in helping societies transition to a climate-friendly future.