To highlight the threat of plastic pollution on the oceans,
Aaron Dunleavy teamed up with TBWA to serve up battered plastic in a local chippie
in his home-town of Blackburn. The micro-budget campaign still aimed big; to change
the nation’s attitude toward plastic usage and offer Brits ways in which they
can easily reduce their plastic footprint. The campaign looks towards 2050 when
research suggests there may be more plastic in the ocean than fish. This shocking
prospect is made a reality when punters in the chippie are given a taste of
what’s to come; battered (recycled) bottles instead of their usual battered
cod. Currently, over 8-million tonnes of plastic are estimated to enter the
ocean each year, a figure that is predicted to increase to over 20-million
tonnes by 2030. With fish and other animals also ingesting pieces of plastic,
that may, in turn, reach the mouths of hungry Brits. The film was named
Campaign’s best-in-class example of brands beginning to work in the Social
space helping to clear up our environment. The film was deliberately made in
Blackburn, far from any possible criticism of a Southern Media bubble, to reach
out to a broader audience. Aaron, the director, was interviewed for local radio
and local news outlets, as were the Chippie staff. The local buzz helped to create
national news interest, which would have been far harder without so much local
support and free PR. *No humans were harmed in the making of this film.