Verified
Fighting mis- and disinformation with the United Nations.
We partnered with the UN, the IKEA Foundation and Rockefeller Foundations, and others to create Verified, a global communications effort to fight misinformation with science, solutions and solidarity.
Overview
1.4B people reached across all campaigns.
250 organizations in collaboration.
200 influential voices engaged.
Challenge
As COVID-19 turned lives upside down, people worldwide sought safety tips, hope and ways to help each other. But misinformation became its own global epidemic, hindering communities and governments. Inconsistent leadership, polarized views on safety measures and widespread anxiety added to these challenges. We needed to cut through the noise and reach global audiences with accurate information.
Strategy
Working in partnership with the United Nations and several leading funders, Purpose created Verified, a global communications program designed to tackle the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over three critical years, Verified collaborated with a diverse range of partners to deliver audience-focused, contextually relevant campaigns. These efforts emphasized forward-thinking, optimistic narratives and introduced innovative approaches to combat the COVID-19 infodemic, build vaccine confidence, and inspire global solidarity.
Creative
We created a flexible brand identity for the overarching Verified brand. This helped us deliver our credible messaging, especially via UN channels, and served as an endorsement to bring credibility to our campaigns.
Some of the campaign content was deliberately unbranded to ensure that influencers and trusted messengers could speak to their audiences in a way that resonated best with them. The brand identity we created had to be able to interact with this unbranded content, too.
Campaign
In its first three years, Verified enhanced UN capabilities and launched several impactful campaigns. In 2020, the Pause campaign and Team Halo tackled COVID-19 misinformation. In 2021, the Only Together campaign promoted vaccine equity, while Zwakala encouraged mask-wearing in South Africa. By 2022, Verified addressed hate speech, fostered solidarity for Ukraine, and launched initiatives to boost vaccine uptake and support domestic violence victims.
Starting in 2024, we entered a new phase: Verified for Climate, aiming to drive action and awareness around the urgent climate crisis.
Impact
From 2020-2023, Verified reached well over a billion people with trusted information, lifesaving advice and inspiring stories — successfully shifting national narratives in the regions most at risk for COVID.
Now Verified is on a mission to accelerate the green energy transition. In its first year, it reached over 608 million people. Our panel testing found a significant increase in knowledge and intent to take action on climate mis- and disinformation for those who saw our Verified Champions’ videos.
“We can’t afford to let up. All of us on the side of science and solutions must redouble our efforts. Both by relentlessly exposing climate disinformation and those behind it, and by getting bolder, smarter, and more strategic – not just in what we communicate, but how.”
Melissa Fleming
UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications
