Be Wild New York!

In 2015, The Adirondack Council in New York sought to launch a state-wide campaign advocating for 20,000 acres of new state-protected lands that encompass the headwaters of the Hudson River to be classified as wilderness. When joined with other adjacent wilderness areas, it would create one of the largest motor-free wilderness areas in the country. SmartMeme Studios worked with The Adirondack Council and their partners to brand the campaign as “Be Wild New York”, and develop a website www.BeWildNY.org with a social media integrated Instagram campaign #BeWildNY. The effort helped to enlist multiple state and regional organizations, as well as concerned citizens into the wilderness campaign, including actress Sigourney Weaver, who volunteered to narrate a video produced and edited by SmartMeme Studios. The video provided stunning aerial perspectives of the vast beauty of the Boreas Pond watershed and the surrounding Adirondack mountain range rarely seen by the public. The mini-documentary was further elevated by an original soundtrack produced by Michael Bacon (Bacon Brothers). In 2018, Governor Cuomo approved the transfer of 20,000 acres and the “forever wilderness” state land classifications advocated for by the Be Wild NY campaign, making it the largest forest-preserve addition in the history of the park.