ABOUT

Insight

Australia is currently facing an unprecedented marine disaster: a toxic algal bloom stretching across 500 kilometres of South Australia’s coastline. The number of animals killed and habitats destroyed is on a scale equivalent to the black summer bushfires.

The algal bloom was not inevitable: scientists have said it was “foreseeable and even predicted.” And yet our politicians are too scared to name the cause: out-of-control pollution from fossil fuels is causing our oceans to warm, and it is getting worse every year.

The South Australian Government has called the bloom a ‘natural disaster.’ But the Government has so far refused to acknowledge the root cause of the deadly bloom – the impact of pollution on our climate. And yet scientists are clear that the bloom is an unnatural disaster, caused by fossil fuels heating the planet.

The brief

The brief was to educate the residents (and tourists) in South Australia that, one year on, the Algal Bloom crisis is not only a direct result of climate change but also an indirect result of fossil fuel companies like Santos, whose headquarters are based in Adelaide.

The Concept

Going to the beach is an institution for South Australians. It evokes imagery and scents synonymous with all things sand and sea. However, with the government refusing to acknowledge the dead sealife on the shore as an unnatural disaster and surfers reporting rashes and stinging eyes from brevetoxins, we decide to show iconography through the lens of an algal bloom.

Execution

The digital OOH and street posters confidently display discarded objects amongst the dead sealife. Swimming goggles and masks allude to the stinging in the eyes from the bloom. Sunscreen bottles list disclaimers about what the sunscreen may cause. A rusty jet ski billowing fuel into the ocean represents the fossil fuel companies.

Subtly, across all executions, the logos on each featured beach object are variants of the word "Santos," the fossil fuel company, which is not taking any accountability for the bloom.

Result

The campaign was pulled at the last minute. Three climate consultants were contracted to select this final concept. The strategy devised was not to directly depict the reality of the sea-life graveyard through gritty photography. In focus groups, showing this type of imagery to local communities angers and renders them feeling hopeless about the situation. Therefore, the decision was taken to go with another Silver Lining concept - 'Visit South Australia's Algal Bloom, an art deco travel poster that looks familiar and artistic, but gets people to look twice at the dead sea life on the shore.