Activista, the agency launched this year by Anomaly partners and executive creative directors Paco Conde and Beto Fernandez, teamed up with coastal protection organization Surfrider Foundation to highlight an often overlooked aspect of the United States’ ecological concerns: its oceans.
The agency designed a flag to celebrate “The United States and Oceans of America,” replacing the red and white stripes with ocean waves.
“We noticed when we came to America that the U.S. flag flies high wherever you go,”Fernandez said in a statement. “There’s intrinsic pride in the country’s land and water, no matter people’s political persuasion, and the United States and Oceans of America flag, which is of course a tribute to the U.S. flag, is the purest representation of this. We wanted to create an icon that would tap into this and rally people behind this incredibly important cause.”
In a video, the initiative also delivers a message to viewers about the importance of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to the country, as much a part of the United States as its lands. Those oceans need protecting, it instructs viewers, from such threats as plastics, pollution and oil drilling.
The joint initiative also includes an open letter from Surfrider Foundation founder Dr. Chad Nelsen, urging Americans to join the fight to protect the country’s oceans.
“We have more water than land in the U.S. and it is up to each of us to protect it for the future. We all have a stake in taking action to defend the places where we surf, swim, play and live. This is the beginning of something really powerful, that all Americans can get behind,”Dr. Nelsen said in a statement. “We couldn’t be more excited to work with Activista on rallying people nationwide to help us protect our oceans.”