Once pristine waterways around the world now resemble sewage drains or garbage dumps. Organizations are trying to raise awareness of this growing problem like with this campaign by the Arts and Earth Festival in conjunction with the Global Environment Centre. Throughout the city of Kuala Lumpur, larger-than-life drinking straws were placed in rivers and streams with the message “Continue polluting, and soon you may not have a choice” to try to encourage people to vote in favor of compulsary recycling. The message harkened back to the January 2006 event when water resembling sewer water came pouring out from everyone’s faucets. The point of the ad was to encourage peole to vote in favor for compulsory recycling to stop the water pollution.
This intelligent ad by STIR marketing seeks to bring awareness of the polluted state of the Milwaukee River and takes advantage of the clever location to give people a clear picture of what the river could be and what it is now. By getting people to look at the river with the view of having it as a swimming area, it suddenly seems more of an issue. It’s no longer just a river, there is more of a measurable value put on it, something that people can better understand than just clean vs. polluted. Marketing can be very powerpul in grabbing attention and helping to find solutions.
As designers of the built environment, we are always concerned about safety. Or rather concerned about being sued for not safeguarding everything to death. But the reality of it is, people climb on stuff, fall off stuff, in stuff, over stuff and generally find ways to hurt themselves in even the “safest” of environments. Especially children.
When I saw this ad campaign for the Hospital Aleman in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I couldn’t help but laugh. As a kid I was constantly trying to climb trees only to have my Mom tell me to get down because I would hurt myself. Then one day, in the safety of my Grandma’s living room, I did a cartwheel and landed wrong. My left arm snapped clean through the middle.
Wednesday June 10th 2009, 4:56 pm
Filed under: Advertising
This ad campaign for Save Our Seas Foundation really caught my attention with the clever delivery of their message. This non-profit organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland works with the purpose to implement and support diverse programs centered around the protection of the Earth’s marine environment. This particular campaign is geared towards the human perception of sharks as predators and how that has affected their declining population.
A sign that says “Warning: Predators Beyond This Point” is posted on the Two Oceans Aquarium shark tank in Cape Town, South Africa but is backwards as if providing the warning to the sharks about the faces looking at them through the glass. The message states “Humans kill over 100 million sharks every year”.
Saatchi & Saatchi from Cape Town, South Africa devised this campaign to help bring to light the 100 million sharks that are slaughtered every year by humans eventhough 4 humans are attacked by them.
Along with the typical information about the different species within the tank, an additional plaque was positioned under the shark tank as part of the campaign. It depicts a human with the description:
“A fierce predator found in both warm and cold waters. Preys on sharks, finning them alive and leaving them to drwon in the open seas. Offspring, if uneducated, may imitate behaviour of adult species.”
