Times of India launched “Unplastic India” on World Environment Day, June 5, 2023, with the goal of reducing single-use plastic. Working with advertising agencies VML Mumbai and Wunderman Thompson, Mumbai, and Illusion CGI Studio, the news company launched a series of posters and videos featuring sea creatures being squeezed like plastic bottles. Over 5 million people signed a pledge to eliminate single use plastic. It’s the sight of a baby seal, a baby turtle and a baby penguin, that makes you think twice about what will happen to the plastic bottle you’re drinking. Will it be recycled? Will it go into landfill? Or will it end up joining the plastic polluting our oceans? The campaign won the Grand Prix award for Print and Publishing at the Spike Awards in March.
And if you hadn’t quite got the connection between opening a plastic bottle and twisting the head of a beloved sea creature, there’s a 15 second video.
Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik helped launched the Unplastic India campaign with an installation on Puri Beach, Odisha, using 2320 plastic bottles from the beaches around Odisha.
Unplastic India Credits
Advertising Agencies:VML, Mumbai / Wunderman Thompson, Mumbai
Global CCOs Bas Korsten & Daniel Bonner
APAC Regional CCO: Sheung Yan Lo
Chief Creative Officer: Senthil Kumar
VP & Executive Creative Director: Arjun Mukherjee
Senior Creative Director: Diptanshu Roy
Creative Director: Sourish Mitra
Senior Art Director: Purnojyoti Kundu
Copywriter: Arjun Mukherjee
Creative Supervisor: Aneek Ray
Brand Executive Creative Director: Siddharth Prasad
Executive Business Director: Bhavana Dogra
Client Services Director: Amrita Hazari
Illustration and photography: Illusion CGI Studio