The Hotel Marcel Offers Guests a 'Climate Wake-Up Call'

Time to rise and shine?

What? The climate’s going to hell? Lemme sleep 10 more minutes, OK?

Meteorologist John Morales and CBS correspondent David Pogue recorded “Climate Wake-Up Calls” for Hotel Marcel, an eco-friendly establishment in New Haven, Conn. Guests opt in, natch.

Of course, those doing so presumably already know the planet’s on an ecological slide. But they also need to wake up on time. And this program puts a novel spin on standard wakey-wakey messages.

Here’s John:

And now David:

“People just need to wake up to the climate crisis,” says Whit Hiler, ECD at Cornett, which developed the campaign. “I’ve seen countless headlines proclaiming (insert natural disaster) should be a ‘wake-up call’ to climate change and thought to myself, a hotel should do this. A hotel needs to offer a climate wake-up call as an amenity.”

He adds: “I know wake-up calls aren’t as popular as they once were. But I also love that we’re giving new life to an old-school medium while also delivering an important message.”

Finding the right partner was key.

“There are not too many hotels in the world that could do this and back it up. You need a super eco-obsessed hotel like the Marcel,” Hiler says. “We built out the idea, created a deck, shared it with our friends at Quinn PR, and asked if they had any partners interested in bringing this to life.”

“Quinn has a lot of clients in the travel, tourism and hospitality space. We’ve worked with them on several big-hitting VisitLex campaigns. They loved the idea and shared it with their client, Hotel Marcel, and the rest is history.”

As for the Rogue and Morales’ participation, “We felt that having a credible expert doing the recordings made the idea stronger versus just some random voice talent,” Hiler recalls. “All of the glory goes to Quinn for securing the experts.”

Cornett is famed for its offbeat, buzzy work. Other examples include A&W’s workout kit for “Root Beer Float Day” and assorted wackiness for Lexington, Ky., tourism, including a pitch to space aliens and dressing a horse as Mr. Rogers.

Hotel Marcel will donate a portion of the proceeds from guest stays to the New Haven Climate Movement, an organization promoting green jobs and healthier communities.