Greenpeace- Is this the Ocean of the Future?
The Ocean of the Future film was launched in support of the Greenpeace petition calling on supermarkets to dramatically reduce their plastic footprint. It presents a stark vision of our future ocean if action is not taken to stem the tide of throwaway plastic pollution.
The campaign concept was inspired by shocking statistics, including that a truckload of plastic gets dumped into the ocean every hour. Since plastic takes years to decompose, almost every piece of plastic ever manufactured is still in existence somewhere on the planet – and plastic waste is set to double in the next decade if nothing is done. Rather than show the waste in its normal habitat, the Ogilvy team wanted to bring the damaging, ugly reality of plastic waste to somewhere unexpected: a usually pristine aquarium.
The video, created pro-bono for Greenpeace, features a group of children on a school trip visiting Dingle aquarium in the Republic of Ireland. As the children look into the water at the Ocean of the Future exhibition they realise that they aren’t seeing colourful fish and marine wildlife at all, but single-use plastic items such as bags, cutlery and six-pack drinks can rings. While the plastic floats and glides through the water mimicking ocean life, the children realise that there aren’t any creatures in the ocean of the future, but only plastic rubbish. Distributed using social channels and offline in a series of outdoor ads, the petition received 970,00 signatures between April 2018 and March 2019.
This video shows children excited to see the sea-life in the aquarium. At the start they interview a few children about how the feel about going to see the sea-life. When the children get there a sign is placed outside of the room saying ' Is this the ocean of the future.' A question is used to make people think about how their own actions are affecting the ocean. The children are upset that there is only plastic in the aquarium instead of sea-life, this represents how the ocean will look in the future if we don't change now. The plastics have their own descriptions like the sea life would showing that there will be no fish left in the ocean if this continues. The video shows close up shots of plastics floating in the water e.g. bags and bottles, this makes us aware of the everyday objects we use and how they are ruining the ocean. Graphics is used to show information, at the end of the video it says 'Sign our petition now.' This ends the video with a resolution, showing the viewer how they can help. Overall, I think the video is very informative and it shows us the reality of what will eventually happen to the ocean as well as raising awareness of the issue.
Information in the video:
- UK supermarkets generate 800,000 tonnes of plastic each year.
- A truck load of plastic ends up in our oceans every minute.
- Let's makes sure the ocean of the future is filled with fish, not plastic.
- Demand your supermarkets uses less plastic.
