Tactic of social movements – make the elite decision makers feel it, as a necessary but not sufficient tool in getting them to make the ‘right’ decision.
Bob Brown invited Graham Richardson down to Tasmania in the mid-80s, and Richardson says that it mattered. There’s also a good example with a German pollie (Merkel?) which I can’t recall at present.
“At a key juncture, when it seemed that Australia was retreating and Hawke was convinced he couldn’t get a decision across the line, Toyne pulled a rabbit out of the hat. With the assistance of Hawke’s environment adviser, Craig Emerson, who later served in the Gillard cabinet, he managed to get to see the prime minister and show him a short film (excerpts from a Four Corners episode), narrated by ABC science broadcaster Robyn Williams, which illustrated Antarctica’s phenomenal beauty. The pictures were worth 10,000 words and more.”
Garrett, 2016: 213
marchudson.net 