Reshaping Nuclear Narratives Online

Nuclear

Using GIFs and memes to reframe nuclear deterrence for new audiences

Challenge

Young people’s beliefs and attitudes about pressing issues are increasingly shaped on social media.

Action

Develop creative ways to debunk commonly held beliefs about nuclear weapons and spread those messages in new corners of the internet to meet audiences where they are.

Results

Informative and engaging content that has been viewed or shared 128 million times and counting.

Details

Project Staff

Mimi Hall

Vice President, Communications

Ravi Garla

Strategic Communications Consultant

Elise Rowan

Deputy Vice President, Communications

Ryan Cahill

Senior Director, Communications

Juliet Henry

Communications Manager

Mary Olney Fulham

Director, Communications

Understanding that young, diverse audiences are the least likely to watch cable news and the most likely to get information from social media, NTI is meeting these critical demographics where they are by developing new content aimed at challenging conventional wisdom about nuclear weapons and optimized to spread on social media.

This work began in 2022, when NTI partnered with cultural change agency Taskforce to create a new library of nuclear-related GIFs on GIPHY, the internet’s second-largest search engine and the largest public repository of GIFs. Before this project, the top search results globally on nuclear-related terms were depictions of outdated mushroom clouds and other images that reinforced fatalism and despair. Now, these same searches yield a wide selection of aesthetically and culturally relevant GIFs with messages like “ban the bomb” and “pro future, anti-nuke.”

After the success of the GIF project, NTI and Taskforce expanded the scope of work to memes, Gen Z’s most shared content. By using humor and culturally salient formats, these graphics are delivering thought-provoking information on the frequency of nuclear close-calls, facts and figures about nuclear risks today, and the dangers of relying on nuclear deterrence to reach our most persuadable audiences where they spend their time on the internet. The memes have been seen by more than 20 million people across platforms on the internet and have elicited more than 4,000 comments about nuclear weapons from younger audiences.