DISPOSABLE FOREST

TitleDISPOSABLE FOREST
BrandGREENPEACE
Product / ServiceGREENPEACE
CategoryC01. Integrated Campaign Led by Direct
EntrantOGILVY BEIJING, CHINA
Entrant Company:OGILVY BEIJING, CHINA
DM/Advertising Agency:OGILVY BEIJING, CHINA

Credits

Name Company Position
Bill Chan Ogilvy Beijing Executive Creative Director
Doug Schiff Ogilvy Beijing Executive Creative Director
Wilson Chow Ogilvy Beijing Associate Executive Creative Director
Shiyang He Ogilvy Beijing Associate Creative Director
Doug Schiff Ogilvy Beijing Copywriter
Lianhui Hao Ogilvy Beijing Copywriter
Shiyang He Ogilvy Beijing Art Director
Shujie Qi Ogilvy Beijing Art Director
Gongxing Wang Ogilvy Beijing Art Director
Dong Liu Ogilvy Beijing Digital Art Director
Xiaoxin Yang Ogilvy Beijing Digital Art Director
Ajie Liu Ogilvy Beijing Flash Designer
Tracy Wu Ogilvy Beijing Agency Producer
Yong Zhang Ogilvy Beijing Agency Producer
Shujie Qi Ogilvy Beijing Illustrator
Raymond Tao Ogilvy Beijing Account
Cara Fan Ogilvy Beijing Account
Yoyo Liu Ogilvy Beijing Account
Vivian Guo Ogilvy Beijing Account

The Brief

Last year 3.8 million trees in China, one every 10 seconds of every day, were cut down to supply the nation’s demand for an astounding 57 billion disposable chopsticks. Greenpeace wanted to create awareness about this forest destruction and encourage citizens to stop using disposable chopsticks.

Creative Execution

Through research, Greenpeace had learned that most Chinese tend to be complacent about environmental issues, as they feel such topics are the responsibility of the government. But at the same time, younger, urban Chinese were becoming more and more concerned about such issues. Greenpeace felt that the right campaign might be able to make inroads into the public awareness about disposable chopsticks.So, we believe that working with a prominent shopping center in Beijing to create an event can get great media attention and build serious awareness about how disposable chopstick usage contributes to forest destruction.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

To reach far more people than would be possible through an conventional ad campaign, a “disposable forest” of 4, 16-foot tall trees was created out of 84,000 used chopsticks, and put in place over a 3-day weekend at one of Beijing’s most popular shopping centers. While Greenpeace handed out permanent-use chopsticks, people were encouraged to make a pledge not to use disposable chopsticks both at the event, online and a tv campaign.

Results

Over 100,000 made their pledge not to use disposable chopsticks in just the first three weeks after the event. Over 40 media reported the event. Over 2000 restaurants also took the step to stop supplying them as well. The support was so encouraging that Greenpeace China is now working with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), to create a pan-Asian pledge later this year.