Nasty Ocean Pollution Gets the Pretty Tourism Treatment for World Oceans Day

A sobering statistic about ocean pollution: By 2050, there will be more plastic and trash in the world’s oceans than fish. Today, on World Oceans Day, Brooklyn-based indie Conquistadors created a campaign, “Postcards From the Oceans,” that takes a page from the glitz and glamour of global travel to put the critical issue in full view. The work for the agency’s client, Ocean52, a Barcelona-based beverage company that devotes a whopping 52 percent of its earnings to conservancy, is inspired by the unique artistic vibe of travel postcards. “Humans instinctively close their eyes to what’s not beautiful. That’s why we wanted to show the ugliest face of ocean pollution hypnotically,” said Conquistadors founder and executive creative director Mauricio Alarcon. The illustrations, created by Los Angeles artist Cecilia Fletcher and Barcelona-based illustrator Julian Lorenzo, are familiar to world travelers but the cognitive dissonance comes from how the beauty of the ocean and beaches are sullied by waste that’s either in the water or washes up on shore. [kickout id="4"] “The act of receiving a physical postcard in your mailbox is automatically associated with good news. We thought that if we camouflage the bad news with beautiful art, we’d get people’s attention,” added Alarcon, previously creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, J. Walter Thompson and Young & Rubicam. "Ironically, when the world talks about ocean pollution, people tend to pictures places far away from them. But, when you see the places featured on our postcards, you realize pollution is closer than you think. [For example], everyone thinks the Mediterranean is all glamour, but it's actually one of the most polluted oceans." The series also includes riffs on pollution issues faced in the Red Sea, the Caribbean, the Great Barrier Reef, the Gulf of Mexico and others. One particularly nasty example is sea tire cemetery in Florida, complete with a swimmer "luxuriating" in a pile of wasted wheels. To make the point, the chief executive officer of Ocean52, Santi Mier, and select ocean ambassadors will send postcards to 52 world leaders including the secretary-general of the United Nations, the U.S. secretary of energy, Pope Francis, and the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Additionally, some of the postcards will hang near U.N. headquarters in New York. [kickout id="1"] [kickout id="2"] [kickout id="3"] CREDITS: Title: Postcards from the Oceans Client: Ocean52 CEO: Santi Mier Director of Communications and Content: Nicolas Dazet Head of Digital Content: Nicolas Dazet Agency: Conquistadors, New York Executive Creative Director: Mauricio Alarcon Art Director: Gabi Guiard Illustrators: Cecilia Fletcher, Julian Lorenzo Executive Producer: Aymi Beltramo Director: Freddy Arenas Director of Photography: Freddy Arenas Editor: Bernardo Revilla Sound Design: Beacon Street Sound Designer: Amber Tisue Mix Assistant: Aaron Cornacchio Music Studio: Pretty Good Songs Music Producer/Supervisor: Patrick Olivier Music House: Found Objects Composer: Trevor Gureckis Producer: Nick Chomowicz Post Production: MPC Los Angeles Managing Director: Robert Owens Producer: Bomyee Hwang Lead Flame: Toya Dreschler Media Channels: Social, Design, Posters, PR

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Nasty Ocean Pollution Gets the Pretty Tourism Treatment for World Oceans Day

Postcards open eyes to a serious environmental issue

Doug Zanger

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Doug Zanger