Developer of the hit mobile game Pokémon Go - The Pokémon Company and Niantic, have teamed up with nonprofit agency Project Everyone to create special PokéStops around the event's location at the 2017 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The campaign aims to remind attendees of the world's most pressing issues, and why they should be priorities at the conference.
Each of the 17 new PokeStops - where players can collect free items to catch more Pokémon, represents Global Goals - one of the U.N's Sustainable Development Goals - from ending poverty and hunger to gender equality and taking climate action. All of these goals act as a blueprint to make a better world by the year 2030.
The Pokémon Go Gym - where the three teams in the game can battle or train is represented by The Davos Congress Centre, which hosts the World Economic Forum meetings every year. President of The Pokémon Company Tsunekazu Ishihara said in a statement that with Pokémon Go, the world is "our playground" and that we want it to be as beautiful and safe as possible - and this is why they are delighted to play a part in driving the awareness of the Global Goals.
Project Everyone helped rebrand them as the "Global Goals" to make them more accessible and allow everyone to understand their role in reaching them, when 193 world leaders officially agreed to the goals - in the lead-up to September 2015. The Davos campaign seems to further that mission, pointing toward the impact of younger generations and reminding powerful decision-makers attending the conference of their responsibility to create positive change, reported Marshable.
Special adviser to the UN Secretary-General on sustainable development and climate change credited Pokémon Go by saying it is "brilliant" that "Pokémon Go joining the fight to achieve a sustainable world by 2030 and taking the game to Davos." There will be additional in-game content available to players, which will continue to promote the Global Goals, starting in spring 2017.
"We've always wanted both Niantic and Pokémon Go to be a force for good in the world," John Hanke, founder of Niantic, said in a statement, adding that they are "extremely proud to partner with the Global Goals campaign to help remind people of how critically important the Goals are, while hopefully keeping the world's leaders focused on delivering on them."
