For a few weeks, the world of the web and social networks has been stormed by a new trend: the Ghibli studio style images generated by artificial intelligence. This time, however, it is the turn of Greenpeace Greece that appropriates the trend.
In collaboration with the Ogilvy Greece agency, in fact, Greenpeace launched a campaign which diverts the codes of this viral trend. Instead of embellishing trivial scenes, the organization has applied Miyazaki’s style to images of environmental disasters: from California fires to Valencia flood, passing through floods and beaches covered with plastic.
The result: a chilling contrast where the beauty of animation clashes with the brutality of environmental damage, with a single clear objective: No aesthetics, however soft, can erase the reality of the climatic crisis. And above all, no filter will replace the concrete and urgent action necessary to deal with it.
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Greenpeace thus chooses to rely on tools and digital trends that fascinate the younger generations, to speak better to them. In fact, the message uses the codes of artificial intelligence, social networks and pop culture, however turning them against current.
While the debates on the ethics of the AI in art impose, this campaign asks an essential question: by embellishing too much, do we not risk anesthetizing our capacity for reaction?
With this initiative, Greenpeace invites us to reflect on our relationship with images and on the illusion of beauty. In a world increasingly dominated by digital filters, the organization challenges us to look beyond appearance, reminding us that, however fascinating and powerful, visual technologies cannot hide the raw reality of our environment.
Climate change is not an abstract concept or a poetic theme to be explored in animated films. It is a tangible crisis that we are experiencing every day and its devastating effects are only worsening. The time would come to face this truth without veils, to push us to change our approach before it is too late.
