Unplastic India: The hard hitting campaign exposing animals’ suffering due to plastic

The Times of India launched #UnplasticIndia with powerful visuals against single-use plastic. While industry leaders attempted to censor the posters, their efforts failed, and the campaign went viral around the world.

Between 2015 and 2020, the amount of plastic waste produced in India literally doubled, rising from 1.59 to 3.47 million metric tons. With half of this mountain of waste left untreated, the environmental impact on marine life and human health has reached critical levels.

Thus, to mark World Environment Day on June 5, the daily newspaper The Times of India decided to break through the wall of indifference with “Unplastic India.” This awareness campaign against single-use plastic relies on a jarring visual association, deliberately eschewing overly “cold” statistics.

The metaphor that is shaking up the industry

The project’s effectiveness rests on a powerful visual analogy: the ordinary gesture of twisting the cap to open a plastic bottle is superimposed on the twisted necks of marine animals, such as turtles and seals. The illustrations show these animals staring at the viewer, their necks abnormally twisted, accompanied by the slogan “Stillusingplastic bottles?” This visual shock triggered an immediate reaction from industry lobbies and bottle manufacturers. Deprived of the buffer provided by statistical distance, they felt threatened by the prospect of a radical shift in public opinion.

The legal boomerang effect for industry lobbies

Hoping to block the dissemination of these messages, multinationals in the sector filed official complaints with the ASCI (Advertising Standards Council of India) to demand the immediate censorship or ban of the campaign. However, the manufacturers’ attempts at a boycott ended in complete failure. The legal battle had the opposite effect: it generated massive media coverage and amplified word-of-mouth.

Source: The Times Of A Better India