In November 2023 a creative director traveled to Churchill, Manitoba to evaluate a role with Canada Goose and its partnership with Polar Bears International. The landscape and silence created intense feelings of vulnerability, smallness, and awe amid deep winter cold. Multiple tundra-buggy drives provided close observation of polar bears, including rare triplets whose survival was threatened by melting ice. Conversations with scientists linked those observations to human-driven climate change and responsibility for solutions. The experience produced emotional release, introspection, and a new habit of seeking solace in nature, alongside a renewed commitment to return and engage with conservation.
I was immediately seduced by the silence and the immense landscape. There's something beautiful about it: You feel like a very small person, you're made vulnerable, and you realize you don't mean that much in the world. It was the start of winter and the temperature was 20 degrees below zero, but I couldn't really feel the cold because I was so excited to be part of this journey that I forgot about everything else.
The PBI scientists took me out on drives to see the polar bears several times. They're adorable, yes, but dangerous too, so we rode this thing called a tundra buggy, which was really a giant protective truck. I was excited like a little child, but I was also feeling heartbreak and tenderness. We had the wonder of seeing triplets with their mother.
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