SRI PADA - MERIT BIN

TitleSRI PADA - MERIT BIN
BrandRATNAPURA PRADESHIYA SABAWA
Product / ServiceRATNAPURA PRADESHIYA SABAWA
CategoryB06. Use of Ambient Media: Large Scale
EntrantLEO BURNETT SOLUTIONS Colombo, SRI LANKA
Idea Creation LEO BURNETT SOLUTIONS Colombo, SRI LANKA
Production 24 FRAMES Colombo, SRI LANKA

Credits

Name Company Position
Trevor Kennedy Leo Burnett Solutions Inc Chief Creative Officer
Athula Kathriarachchi Leo Burnett Solutions Inc Senior Creative Director
Mehnaz Ilhamdeen Leo Burnett Solutions Inc Head Of Operations
Prasad Chathuranga Leo Burnett Solutions Inc Illustrator / Art Director
Dilshard Ahamed Leo Burnett Solutions Inc Creative Consultant
Firzan Mulafer Publicis Solutions Account Director
Malaka Samith Leo Burnett Solutions Inc Copywriter
Nadeera Warawita Leo Burnett Solutions Inc Art Director
Sampath Karunaratne Leo Burnett Solutions Inc Associate Creative Director
Ajantha Kumara Leo Burnett Solutions Inc Art Director
Geesha Jayakody Leo Burnett Solutions Inc Copywriter
Hassan Samdin Leo Burnett Solutions Inc Art Director

The Campaign

Turning garbage disposal into a meritorious act in the pilgrim’s journey towards enlightenment.

Creative Execution

Each stride of the demanding 25,000 steps is accompanied by religious chants, seeking ‘good karma’ or merits from the divine journey. We researched and re-wrote these traditional chants to champion the idea of waste disposal as a way of collecting merits. Temple Wardens and Pilgrims carried these chants and reminders to millions of journeymen. Inspired by the Buddhist practice of collecting merits by making monetary offerings to temple tills, we also created special bins to complement the message. Instead of donating money however, pilgrims could now donate garbage. These Donation Bins were placed all along the pilgrims’ route.

Overall, three and half times more waste was collected from all garbage bins, while on average each of our special bins collected twice as much. Garbage was no longer garbage; it was an opportunity to amass merits by doing good, under the light of Lord Buddha.

The innovative use of an ancient medium as a new media makes the work quite unique. Understanding the mindset and the situational realities of the pilgrims’ journey allows not just for the work to be noticed, but also helps make each pilgrim or priest a media voice who then strengthens the network.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

The proposed idea had to respect the importance of the site, understand the deeper cultural nuances and take in to account the psychological framework of the pilgrims. Since a cross segment of devotees visit the mountain, young and veteran, we needed a solution that can be easily adapted and accepted. An organic conversion, from shifting a daily practice in to one of spiritual significance was ideal and doable.