Brief Explanation

Greenpeace wanted to make our message immediate and inescapable, but didn’t have much budget for media. So we wanted to leverage the products that people touch every day, the direct products of deforestation, to be the media itself. We then connected this to a byproduct of deforestation and emotional pressure point, animal extinction, for the message.

The Brief

Widespread deforestation drives numerous animal species closer to extinction each year. Greenpeace urgently wanted to make people aware of this alarming truth, but in China, the problem seems far removed from daily life. So how could we make deforestation and its effect on animal extinction feel more immediately relevant to everyone?

How the final design was conceived

Wanting to make the connection between regular paper consumption and animal extinction impossible to ignore, we put animal blood literally into people’s hands. Bloody ‘paper cuts’ in the shapes of endangered animals were printed onto paper used in everyday settings from offices, cafes to clothing shops and even a famous resort. By directly showing its bloody consequences, we transformed paper from an ordinary object into a provocative learning tool for thousands of people.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

QR codes above each paper cut directed over 15,000 people to Greenpeace’s website to learn more about deforestation. Office workers, cafe goers, store patrons and resort guests extended our message even further by sharing pictures of the paper cuts on social media. The biggest success, however, were the numerous businesses that asked Greenpeace for guidance on making their companies greener, including using eco-friendly paper.