GREENPEACE | TOXIC TOURS | 2013
When irony moved politics / GREENPEACE "TOXIC TOURS"
They set up a fake travel agency and started selling tours down a polluted river. The footage shows celebrities grinning as they recommend "snorkeling in crude oil" or "surfing chemical waves" — it's so dark it's hard to laugh.
The problem
In Mexico, seven out of ten rivers were polluted, but the media and politicians had ignored the problem for years.
The insight
According to the head of Greenpeace Mexico, the goal was to "put the polluted rivers on the political agenda." If a straightforward appeal wouldn't get through, the idea was to hit back with irony instead.
The idea
To coincide with World Tourism Day, a "toxic tour specialty travel agency" suddenly appeared. Popular actors starred in the ads, presenting things like fishing in a river full of dead fish or surfing in wastewater, with all the upbeat tone of a real tourism commercial.
What happened
Within 24 hours of release, media outlets around the world picked it up, and Mexican newspapers ran it on their front pages. A river pollution problem that no one had reported on before suddenly became front-page news. The campaign won a Gold Lion in the PR category at Cannes Lions.
Afterthought
The person in charge later reflected that, since there was no path to a petition or further action, it never grew into a full citizen movement. Still, the fact remains that a single piece of irony was enough to move both the media and politics. I'd love to make the world move too — by making people laugh, and think.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2013
Featured in
- Ads That Reached Into the LawBreaking rules, slipping through loopholes, rewriting statutes — eight ads, ordered by how far they reached.
