BIG FEATURE: THE UNITED NATIONS
The United Nations’ SDG Media Compact has a mission to educate and raise awareness through stories and entertainment. And that’s the licensing industry’s bread and butter. Caroline Petit, deputy director of the UN’s Regional Information Centre, shares her mission. BELOW: Raya, created by Sesame Workshop for the Cleaner, Healthier, Happier campaign that runs in Bangladesh, India, and Nigeria and is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
THE STARS, STARS
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he thing with Caroline Petit, the deputy director of the United Nations’ Regional Information Centre for Western Europe, is that she likes to popup where she’s least expected. In a professional capacity, of course. This doesn’t mean she’s accustomed to lurking around corners, waiting to catch you drinking from a plastic straw – no matter how good that account would be on TikTok – but it does mean that visitors of Brand Licensing Europe this year found themselves – unwittingly or not – witness to a UN address on sustainability in brands and fashion. It was on stage that Caroline introduced audiences to the Irish educational youth movement, Junk Kouture – the ‘circular pioneers of tomorrow’ – while it was on the show floor at the ExCeL London event that the United Nations’ representative learned the most. “I learned a lot at Brand Licensing Europe,” she tells Products of Change now from the comfort of her own home in Brussels. “I like to be, as a UN Communicator, in places where the UN is not expected to be because that’s where we can meet new audiences, communicate, and also learn about industry priorities and where the matches are with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. “And I met with some really committed and innovative industry professionals at Brand Licensing Europe, like The Eden Project and Wastebuster; those companies are really doing it, taking action, and inspiring people.” It works as a reassurance of sorts, Caroline admits, that industry is starting to make a difference and that behind the big brands and the corporate logos, there are “human beings who are committed and realise that yes, we need government, but that it is essential we act at all levels to take responsibility, too.” For Caroline, her role is all about raising awareness. Awareness and education. It’s how the United Nations and its network of 59 United Nations Information Centres across the world, acting on behalf of the Department of Global Communications of the United Nations, see it best to “mobilise action for the planet”. This all falls, by the way, under the communication priorities and UN Pillars of the UN’s Secretary General, Antonio Guterres; to embed Peace and Security, Human Rights, and Sustainable Development across the world. “We are in emergency mode,”
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