2019 Winner

Greenpeace

Straw Shaming

Rethink

BronzeCause/Public Service

Greenpeace and Rethink created a campaign that’s uncomfortable to look at, much less reflect. While the plastic straw may be small, it’s causing significant harm to the planet. Sadly, the reality is that they’re in almost every restaurant and bar: in Canada alone, 57 million straws are discarded each day. Single-use plastic eventually ends up in our oceans, where they endanger and kill sea life. But despite consumer uproar (and a single-use plastic ban announced for 2021), there’s currently no law prohibiting straws in Canada.

Greenpeace wanted to change that and so they created a groundswell by rattling the cage. “Stop Sucking” was intended to wake people up to the problem, and visuals of animals (a turtle, fish and seagull) with straws brutally inserted into their mouths did the job.

To take it a step further, the team created a series of “Straw Shaming” GIFs for Instagram. The stickers were designed to fit perfectly on the image of a straw, so people could tag the restaurant (where they were given the sipping device) for all of their followers to see. And it worked. The GIFs generated 2.3 million views and have since been used on a global scale, earning Bronze in Cause/Public Service.

Credits
Creative Director: Joel Holtby, Mike Dubrick, Aaron Starkman, Ian Grais, Chris Staples
Art Director: Joel Holtby
Writer: Mike Dubrick
Designer: Joel Holtby
Photography: Instill Image Co.
Strategist: Sean McDonald, Hannah Newport
Producer: Narine Artinian, Todd Harrison
Production Company: R+D Productions
Editor: Stephen Parker, Dustin Gamble
Audio House: Vapor-RMW
Account Director: Caleb Goodman

For submission inquiries, please contact Clare O'Brien at cobrien@brunico.com.
For partnership inquiries, please contact Neil Ewen at newen@brunico.com.