I have come across a novel anti-pollution campaign. Lew?LaraTBWA in Brazil have taken an unusual approach to marketing World Car Free Day
Sao Paulo is one of the most polluted cities in the world, the 4th biggest with a population over 10 million. Its traffic problems are legendary.
To make people think about the consequence of pollution, a team from TBWA decided to use a form of graffiti to make a social comment and encourage people to use public transport and cars less.
The stunt was executed in one of Sao Paulo’s busiest road tunnels and the dirtiest. What they did was simple. They wrote messages; ‘walk’, ‘ride a bike’, ‘take the bus’, ‘take the subway’ by cleaning off the dirt. Shocked road users got the message.
It got national coverage and everyone talking.
The Car Free Network (www.worldcarfree.net ) is now active across the world. They produce a publication, Carbusters, and have introduced a novel term into the dictionary, ‘autoholic.’
The Sao Paulo campaign reminds me a bit of the National Asthma Campaign ‘glue’ poster Saatchi’s did about 5 years ago. They painted a poster in glue (except for the headline) and left it up at Vauxhall for 2 weeks – the dirtiest place in London. So much pollution stuck to it it revealed the headline THIS POSTER HAS BEEN UP FOR JUST TWO WEEKS, IMAGINE WHAT YOU LUNGS MUST LOOK LIKE?
Of course Sao Paulo is also famous for removing all outdoor advertising – billboards, taxi ads, bus ads, ads on trains and the rest. Right-wing mayor, Gilberto Kassab, passed the so-called ‘Clean City’ laws to ban the "visual pollution" caused by the city's 8,000 billboard sites, many of them erected illegally. The outcome was very popular. London beware!
CHRIS ARNOLD
Blogging for:
Member since: 03 Jun 2008
Last login: 19 Nov 2009
Total Posts: 313
