image via adsoftheworld
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.
image via milwaukeeriverkeeper.org
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.