The Nature of Plastic: Greenpeace wrapped Chile in plastic bags to make an important point

'The Nature of Plastic' campaign by Greenpeace Chile encourages netizens to sign a petition against plastic and modify their consumption patterns so that they minimize its usage in day-to-day lives.

If the earth was wrapped in plastic, what would it look like? It seems downright unpleasant to even imagine. What makes us complacent to the very land we live in, the oxygen we breathe, and the nature we are surrounded with? Why has our behavior never been environment-centric? These are just a handful of questions that we musk ourselves. For Chile, a country in South America, Greenpeace is asking these questions through their latest campaign. ‘The Nature of Plastic’ campaign re-envisioned five of Chile’s most popular locations, viz: Easter Island; the Atacama desert; El Plomo mountain; the El Morado glacier, and Araucania forest.

The aim of the campaign, Cheil Central America’s first for Greenpeace Chile, is to highlight the extent of the problem and encourage people to modify their consumption habits to drastically reduce plastic waste. The campaign will run on billboards, in magazines and on digital platforms for four weeks across March and April 2021.

The campaign illustrates the impact of environmental pollution created by the humongous spread of plastic and underlines the need for behavioral change. The campaign was disseminated across multiple channels, including print, outdoor and social media. Photographers and designers collectively explored a number of textures, colors, lights, and shadows of each to capture identifiable elements to create satellite photograph-style images, created using plastic bags. The effort yielded results which more than just breathtaking.

Every satellite-image highlighted the truth that “PLASTIC IS EVERYWHERE” and was inclusive of the call to action: “SCAN TO STOP THE SPREAD – an embedded QR code allowed users to sign an online petition. Inspired by the western usage of QR during the pandemic, the focus has been laid on seamless mobile interplay to help people make informed choices, and most importantly, take real action by petitioning leaders to change their policies around plastics.

In recent years, Chile has become the largest Latin American country in terms of producing plastic waste, with more than 990.000 tonnes of plastic being consumed annually. Here's the sad bit: only 8% of it is recycled.

Also Read: Case Study: How Sleepwell synonymized itself with healthy sleep through influencer outreach

Mariana Peluffo, Regional Creative Director at Cheil Central America, said, “Greenpeace has a powerful voice that has set the tone for this campaign. From the beginning, we knew we wanted to create a stunning visual campaign that could effectively reflect what plastic pollution is doing to nature. From a different perspective, ‘The Nature of Plastic’ campaign exposes a clear message: plastic is everywhere. The most important thing is that every print has a QR code to take action immediately.”

Soledad Acuña, Project Leader at Greenpeace, said, “Plastic, in its different forms – microplastics – is covering the earth completely. We developed this campaign to raise awareness of how plastic is modifying all our landscapes irreversibly, even in protected environments. If we act now, we can stop the spread of plastic.”