McCann and Clean River Project Launch Insightful Campaign to Raise Awareness of Plastic in Waters

What do melamines, thermoplastics, cellulose acetate butyrates, polyvinylidene fluorides or polypropylenes have in common, except that they are chemical compounds? All these man-made substances are used to produce what still too often ends up in our rivers: plastic. To put it exaggeratedly, one could say that with all the plastic waste - disposable bottles, lids, packaging or bags – the German rivers will soon be invisible.

Based on this idea, McCann Frankfurt designed the ‘Hidden Rivers’ campaign for the non-profit organisation Clean River Project e.V. The team led by creative director Thomas Auerswald hid the names of some German rivers in the plastic designations: the river Main in Melamine, the river Ems in Thermoplaste, the river Elbe in Celluloseacetatbutyrate, the river Oder in Polyvinylidenfluoride and the river Olpein Polypropylene. 

"We focus on simplicity and on aesthetics," said Thomas Auerswald, creative director at McCann. "The play with typography should be a bit challenging – and the recognition should lead to insight." This artistic design approach was deliberately chosen for "Hidden Rivers"; after all, McCann and Clean River Project are not interested in portraying plastic in a fundamentally negative way. Rather, they are aiming to point out the dangers for the environment and health that are threatened by the decomposition of plastic in the waters.

The campaign was launched at the end of September on the international "Day of Rivers". It is designed to run for one year and includes various motifs for DOOH, postcards and T-shirts, whereby "Hidden Rivers" will be constantly supplemented with new motifs in the coming months. The campaign is supported by the German outdoor advertising company Wall, which provides visibility through Digital City Light Posters (DCLPs) and Digital City Light Boards (DCLBs) in a multitude of cities along rivers throughout Germany. 

"A campaign like this makes the problem of plastic pollution on our doorstep literally tangible," said Frauke Bank, head of corporate communications and affairs, Wall, in Berlin. "Together with Clean River Project and McCann, we want to use this stirring campaign to trigger a change in awareness: from plastic as a cheap throwaway product to a precious resource."

For more than 10 years, Clean River Project e.V. has regularly organised so-called CleanUp events, educational projects and art exhibitions on the topic of plastic waste in rivers throughout Germany. Last September, in which McCann already accompanied the association with a campaign shown in cinemas all over Germany, Clean River Project was able to collect a total of 46,500 litres of waste on and from rivers at more than 20 of its CleanUp Events with 900 volunteers. The non-profit organisation is financed by merchandise sales as well as donations, traditional project funding and sponsoring. 

"Our mission is to rid rivers throughout Germany of plastic and other waste and to raise public awareness of the problem," said Stephan Horch, founder and chairman of Clean River Project e.V. "In doing so, we follow the motto: clean up (CleanUps), shake up (art), educate (education). That is why we are all the more pleased about the support of McCann Frankfurt, because the ‘Hidden Rivers’ campaign shakes things up and educates. We hope to draw even more attention to the fact that plastic is a complex raw material that should remain in the cycle and never end up in nature.

In the past 20 years, plastic waste from packaging has more than doubled in this country, and according to OECD forecasts, global plastic waste will triple again by 2060. If we continue as we are, a fifth of the world's oil production will be needed just to make plastic in 2050. (In 2016, it was only 8%.) More than three quarters of global plastic waste flows into the sea via rivers and endangers the ecosystem there at the latest. But microplastics have also been detected in German rivers and inland waters from Lake Constance to the North Sea.

The campaign was developed at McCann Frankfurt by Thomas Auerswald (idea), Guto Kuno (design) and Joseph Rakosi (photography). On the client side, Stephan Horch, founder and chairman of Clean River Project e.V., and Franziska Braunschädel, the managing director and 2nd chairwoman of the non-profit association, were responsible.