The oil appears again and again in interactive postcard – gives first hand experience of the situation that remains in the Gulf of Mexico
Expat Watch: Kiiwi expat Fraser Grant (pictured bottom) worked at Colenso BBDO, Auckland when Rich Maddocks was ECD. He then took up a job at Saatchi & Saatchi Switzerland working for Aussie expat Derek Green. Together with his Swiss partner he left there to be the creative department of the newly founded M&C Saatchi Switzerland. That’s where they’ve produced this work for the Gulf Restoration Network, an organisation based out of New Orleans.
The Gulf Restoration Network has been working in the Gulf of Mexico since 1995, providing the region with one voice to advance environmental issues of Gulf-wide importance. When BP’s Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling unit rig began to release millions of litres of oil into the region, the organisation and its resources would be stretched by the United States’ worst environmental disaster.
Today, many people are unaware that the oil continues to remain in the Gulf. The Gulf Restoration Network continues working to build public support for restoring and protecting the Gulf.
M&C Saatchi Switzerland needed to bring attention back to the Gulf of Mexico and for people to see that the disaster was still causing devastating issues in the area and to all of its inhabitants.
To do this the agency delivered a simple and impactful solution for the Gulf Restoration Network, in the form of a postcard that could be easily shared with people.
The postcard uses environmentally-friendly ink to place the receiver of the card directly into a situation where they can experience for themselves what is happening in the Gulf and support the Gulf Restoration Network. The call to action ‘We need more hands’ further insists that it is only with the assistance of more people that the region will be able to continue on a path of recovery.
M&C Saatchi Geneva: Olivier Girard (Executive Creative Director), Gabriel Mauron (Art Director), Fraser Grant (Copywriter – pictured left), Galletet SA (Printing), Sérigraphie Charbonney (Screen-printing), ‘Pan’ by Taxidermy Hall (Music), Pascal Greco (Video Editor).
Gulf Restoration Network: Dan Favre (Communications Director) .
1 Comment
Ok,
Can we please just skip all the altruistic bullshit upfront? This was made to win an award. And you now what? It probably will.
But will it actually work as an effective piece of DM? I highly doubt it.
First of all the call to action simply says: “We need your hands”. Without specific, or should I say explicit, instructions such as: “Place your hands on the bird to remove the oil.” Having worked on countless pieces of DM communications I can tell you straight away that very very few, if any, REAL punters will actually engage with this postcard.
Secondly, no charitable organisation could possibly afford to print anything with heat sensitive ink on it. It smells very much like an agency coming to the party and paying for it themselves. Which again, points to award campaigning.
Now, please don’t get me wrong here. I am not saying this is a bad concept. And it seems like it works pretty well. I am just saying that this has one specific task – win the creatives/agency an award. Any real benefit to the charity, it would appear, looks more like a secondary objective.
And that’s fine. Because really all the agency is doing is giving them free advertising! And what could be bad about that? Well, nothing.
But next time spare us the 50seconds of “Look at how bad the world is; we are here to save it” bullshit at the front end of your award entry video.