Cheil Calls for Behavioural Change by Reimagining Iconic Chile Locations in Plastic Bags

Cheil Central America has created a striking campaign for Greenpeace Chile – ‘The Nature of Plastic’ – in which five of Chile’s iconic locations are re-imagined in plastic for print, outdoor and social to express the impact of pollution, even in protected environments, and highlight the need for behavioural change. 

The creative team selected five locations: Easter Island; the Atacama desert; El Plomo mountain; the El Morado glacier; and Araucania forest. These locations were chosen to illustrate clearly that even in such breathtaking scenes, our plastic use has penetrated the very fabric of nature.

Designers then explored the numerous textures, colours, lights and shadows of each to capture recognisable elements to create satellite photograph-style images, all created using everyday plastic bags, crafting iconic images of nature, although made from something entirely unnatural - the very human-made plastic pollution that is overtaking nature. The effect is a trick of the eye as these new plastic landscapes mirror the real thing and share the message that we may not even be able to see the damage that is being wrought by our plastic use - an irreversible disruption of nature.

Every execution highlights the truth that 'PLASTIC IS EVERYWHERE' and features the call to action: 'SCAN TO STOP THE SPREA' – an embedded QR code triggers an online petition to sign. Inspired by the western world’s phenomenal uptake of QR code usage during the pandemic, the focus is on seamless mobile interplay to help people make better choices and – more importantly – to take real action by petitioning leaders to change their policies around plastics.

In recent years, Chile has become the largest Latin American country in producing plastic waste - 990.000 tones of plastic are consumed annually, just 8% recycled.

The aim of the campaign, Cheil Central America’s first for Greenpeace Chile, is to highlight the extent of the problem and encourage people to modify their consumption habits to drastically reduce plastic waste.

The work will run on billboards, in magazines and on digital platforms for four weeks across March and April 2021

Mariana Peluffo, regional creative director at Cheil Central America, said: “Greenpeace has a powerful voice that has set the tone for this campaign. From the beginning, we knew we wanted to create a stunning visual campaign that could effectively reflect what plastic pollution is doing to nature. 

“From a different perspective, ‘The Nature of Plastic’ campaign exposes a clear message: plastic is everywhere. The most important thing is that every print has a QR code to take action immediately.”

Soledad Acuña, Project Leader at Greenpeace, said: “Plastic, in its different forms - microplastics - is covering the earth completely. We developed this campaign to raise awareness of how plastic is modifying all our landscapes irreversibly, even in protected environments. 

“If we act now, we can stop the spread of plastic.”