The advert, designed to enhance world support for the charity's efforts to protect the Arctic, was created in just 24 hours in a collaborative process between Borkowski.co, BMB, IM Collective and Greenpeace.

It forms part of Greenpeace's larger initiative to protect the Arctic for life on Earth and save it from the efforts of oil drillers and is timed to coincide with the Earth Summit 2012 in Rio de Janeiro.

The team is also promoting a petition to demand that the area around the North Pole be protected by the UN as a global sanctuary and the Arctic be made off-limits to industrial polluters. The first one million signatories will have their name and a Flag for the Future planted on "the bottom of the ocean at the top of the world".

Production of the commercial was headed up in partnership between Borkowski.do founder Mark Borkowski and BMB founding partner Trevor Beattie, with actor John Hurt undertaking the voice over and music from Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson. The project also enlisted iM London' Julia Reed.

Trevor said: "There's nothing like a 24 hour deadline to focus the mind, and "24 hours to save the planet" is the stuff of Flash Gordon. Greenpeace are genuine activists, they're in a hurry. Their sense of urgency is infectious, and the argument is extraordinary and terrifying: We're burning our home to help heat our home. Our job was to illustrate this insane vicious circle as clearly and rapidly as we could."

John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace, said: "This is one of Greenpeace's biggest campaigns and one that relies, above all, on the participation of people from across the world who feel strongly enough about the future of our planet to actively take a stand. In creating the commercial in 24 hours we started a collaborative, frenetic process that will carry this movement right to the top of the world."

Celebrities including Paul McCartney, Sir Richard Branson and Penelope Cruz, as well as boy band One Direction are among many to support the cause.

You can view the video here.