The Hot Seat
A 20-minute simulation that puts you in the opposition's chair. Build the message against an environmental law, and understand the formula by using it.
The scenario
You are in Veritania, a fictional European country, where the government is about to pass the Living Landscapes Act, a nature-recovery law that would set aside 15% of farmland by 2035. Your small team has been hired by Ms. Victoria Moremoney, Leader of the Opposition, and the brief is blunt: "I need a message that turns people against it, fast." The Act passes in 30 days. You have 20 minutes.
How it works
Each group takes on the role of an opposition communications firm and works through four choices, one at a time, discussing each before committing. At the end, a score and an estimated reach are revealed, and every group's result feeds a live leaderboard.
Choose a target audience
Pick which group of Veritanians the message is built to reach.
Identify a real concern
Find the genuine grievance that audience already holds.
Escalate it
Sharpen the concern into something that demands a response.
Assign blame
Pin the grievance on a culprit, and the message is complete.
Why build the opposition's message
The exercise rests on a single finding from the LightSwitch research: opposition actors across Europe are not mainly denying climate or nature science. They are running a repeatable formula, real grievance, escalation, blame, that moves persuadable audiences away from pro-nature positions. The fastest way to learn to recognise that formula is to build it once yourself. Having assembled an opposition message, participants see the mechanism clearly enough to counter it, which is where Ripple Research's Meet-and-Move framework picks up.
Participants who have built an opposition message are harder to manipulate by one. They see the mechanism, they recognise the escalation, and they notice when blame is being assigned to the wrong cause.
What participants leave with
Individuals gain a direct, embodied sense of how opposition messages are structured, and a lower tendency to reach for a scientific rebuttal when the real driver is a fairness or credibility narrative. Teams gain a shared reference point for discussing opposition tactics, more confidence in spotting the intervention window before a narrative takes hold, and practical familiarity with Meet-and-Move as a counter-messaging tool.
Who it is for
The Hot Seat is designed for communicators, policy staff, and campaigners working on nature and climate across European civil society. It is most effective for teams already familiar with the LightSwitch findings who want a practical way to apply them. No technical knowledge is needed, and it runs in a standard browser.
Want to run the Hot Seat with your team?
We facilitate the simulation for communications and campaign teams working on nature and climate. Most sessions start with a short conversation about your group and your goals.