Prince William’s latest campaign smeared by claims of hypocrisy

BBC fans have complained of the ‘hypocrisy’ of Prince William’s Earthshot Prize Awards Ceremony as the Awards’ sustainability message was trampled on by guests using aeroplanes to attend the event when the winners themselves stayed home and attended virtually.

An extremely sustainable event

Given the Earthshot Prize’s ambition to spotlight solutions that help save Planet Earth, it is no surprise that the Awards ceremony was hosted with sustainability in mind.

The Earthshot Prize said:

Sustainability considerations are factored into every aspect of the production, from the highest level right through to the teams and crews working on the ground.

According to Town & Country, everything from the light fixtures to the transport had been designed to be environmentally friendly. For example, guests who were expected to wear reused or recycled outfits were transported via electric or hybrid vehicles.

On Sunday night, five finalists were declared winners by a panel that includes Prince William, Sir David Attenborough, Cate Blanchett, Dani Alves, Fijian activist Ernest Gibson and Shakira.

The Prince and Princess of Wales handed out the awards for each winner of the five categories: Clean Our Air, Protect and Restore Nature, Build a Waste-free World, Revive Our Oceans and Fix Our Climate.

However, the finalists, who live in all four corners of the planet, did not attend the ceremony directly because of the impact their travel would have on their carbon footprint.

A not-so-sustainable celebrity guest list

The Awards Ceremony was broadcast on the BBC on Sunday night, 4th December, yet viewers were left seething at the level of hypocrisy oozing from the event.

Indeed, while the winners stayed at home to accept their awards virtually, many of the presenters and guests at the ceremony had flown to the East Coast to attend the event.

One Twitteruser wrote:

Why did you fly celebrities from around the world to attend & leave the most important people at home because of the carbon footprint…

Another person questioned:

Are all these celebrities going to jump back on gas-guzzling planes, and fly halfway across the world, now they've finished lecturing us all?

However, it seemed that David Beckham caused the most outrage among viewers as he presented the third award for Build a Waste-free World. Twitterusers quickly pointed out the football legend’s controversial ambassadorship with Qatar, where the Football World Cup is currently being held. Many viewers believed that the footballer was out of place at the awards, because of his reported overuse of private jets.

One said:

David Beckham should be nowhere near this, he is literally the ambassador for the World Cup with the biggest ever carbon footprint, absolute hypocrite

While another added:

Is David Beckham really going to be telling us how we can affect the environment when he probably flies more in a month than most people in their entire lifetime?

Sources used:

- The Mirror: BBC fans complain minutes into Earthshot Prize at ‘hypocrisy’ of Prince William awards show

- BBC News: Earthshot Prize: Prince William announces five winners

- Town& Country: Inside the Extremely Sustainable Earthshot Awards Ceremony

- Metro: David Beckham branded ‘hypocrite’ for presenting at Earthshot Prize amid Qatar World Cup controversy: ‘What a joke!’