Amazing, wasn’t it?
A 93-year-old man walks on to stage at the world’s greatest music festival and the whole place falls absolutely silent as he starts to speak.
If you want a living, breathing example of the power of communication, then surely Sir David Attenborough at Glastonbury over the weekend is it.
Every word the veteran broadcaster and naturalist uttered was hung on by an adoring crowd, which might otherwise have been slightly irritated that a grey-haired old man was holding up the music to once again remind them that the world was in danger of going to hell in a plastic handcart.
Of course, Sir David, whose Blue Planet series revealed the horrifying extent of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans, chose his words much more carefully than that.
He thanked the crowds for their help in responding to a call to use less plastic – the festival declared itself plastic-free this year – before reminding them of the scale of the problem facing the world.
“Now this great festival has gone plastic-free,” he said. “That is more than a million bottles of water which have not been drunk by you in plastic. Thank you! Thank you!
“The ocean covers two-thirds of this planet of ours … the land only covers one third of the globe. There are seven great continents on which we human beings live. Each of them has its own marvellous creatures – birds and mammals, animals of all kinds. Each of them has its own glory, each of them has its own problems.”
Sir David’s appearance was an amazing example of some golden rules we tell all our clients when dealing with communications.
Know your message, know your audience and say what you need to say with consistency, honesty and passion.
Do that for long enough and back up your words with action and you will enjoy the sort of trust and authority which allows Sir David to speak to and for all generations in this most challenging of times.
And if you need any help making sure your words are just the right words, get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
