Spinach Creates Arresting Campaign for the Australian Conservation Foundation, Shows Obliteration of Sydney Opera House

Spinach has created a startling campaign for the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) featuring the demolition of the Sydney Opera House.

ACF is Australia's national environmental organisation. Formed in 1965 when oil drilling and mining first threatened the Great Barrier Reef, the ACF community has grown to more than half a million people speaking out for places including the Kimberley, the Daintree, Kakadu and Fraser Island.  

To raise awareness about Australia’s wildlife extinction crisis, the organisation worked with Spinach on the ‘Save our Big Backyard’ campaign.

The campaign aims to educate Australians about the very real risk of extinction facing our unique wildlife with ACF research finding only 34 per cent of Australians are aware the country is in the midst of an extinction crisis.

ACF campaigns director Paul Sinclair said: “We know Australians love nature. But sadly, many people don’t know the true extent of nature destruction taking place every hour across the country. We needed to shock people into taking notice. This campaign has the power to do exactly that.”

The campaign launched on Monday 24 April with the TVC airing for the first time during the Anzac Day Eve AFL match. The TVC shows the iconic Sydney Opera House being levelled as a voiceover comments on the destruction of native species habitats which are bulldozed at a rate of 28 Opera Houses every hour.

Spinach chief creative officer Frank Morabito said: “This campaign aims to highlight the magnitude of threatened species habitat destruction with unforgettably graphic visual statements. We aim to raise questions and get Australians to recognise that we have a nature destruction problem. Why are we horrified to see the destruction of the Opera House, yet we’re unconcerned about doing the same to forests and woodland? This is an important cause and one we’re proud to have worked with ACF to raise.”

In addition to the TVC, the multimedia campaign extends through a partnership with 7RED Engine which further amplifies the important message with in-program integrations throughout AFL programming and news coverage.

The campaign will then be localised for each state with out-of-home and digital. In Victoria, creative shows the demolition of the MCG while in Queensland, Suncorp Stadium is levelled. West Australia’s Optus Stadium and the Adelaide Oval are flattened while in Tasmania, the Salamanca Arts Precinct is obliterated.

This is the first work from Spinach since winning the business in a competitive pitch at the end of 2022.