Unplastic India’s powerful campaign throws the effects of plastic production on animals in our faces

Between 2015 and 2020, plastic waste production in India literally doubled, going from 1.59 to 3.47 million tonnes. With half of this mountain of waste remaining completely unused, the environmental impact on marine wildlife and human health has reached critical levels.

And so, on the occasion of World Environment Day on 5 June, the newspaper The Times of India decided to break the wall of indifference with Unplastic India, an awareness campaign against the use of single-use plastic that avoided cold numerical data to focus on an immediate and disturbing visual association.

The metaphor that scared the producers

The effectiveness of the project was based on a strong graphic analogy: the common gesture of rotating the cap to open a plastic bottle was compared to the twisting of the neck of marine animals such as turtles and seals. The illustrations showed these animals with gazes directed towards the observer and their necks unnaturally rotated, accompanied by the peremptory claim: “Still using plastic bottles?” (that is to say “Are you still using plastic bottles?“). This visual impact triggered the immediate reaction of industrial cartels and bottle producers, who, seeing themselves deprived of the filter of statistical distance, felt threatened by the radical change in public sentiment.

The legal boomerang of industrial cartels

In an attempt to block the spread of messages, multinationals in the sector have filed formal complaints with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) asking for censorship or an immediate ban on advertising. However, boycott attempts by manufacturers failed. The legal dispute had the opposite effect, generating an enormous spontaneous image return and amplifying media word of mouth.

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