MARS | HOPE REEF | 2022
The Word "HOPE" Visible From Space / MARS "HOPE REEF"
A cat food company planted letters on the ocean floor. H-O-P-E. Visible from space, on Google Earth. And made of living coral.
The problem
A reef off the coast of Sulawesi, Indonesia, had been reduced to rubble on the seabed by 30 years of blast fishing. SHEBA is a brand built on fish as its main ingredient, so an ocean where fish couldn't live threatened the brand's very survival. Fixing fishing practices alone wasn't enough—the ocean itself needed to be restored.
The insight
Nobody believes it anymore when a company just says "we care about the environment." An ocean broken by human hands can be restored by human hands—but to prove that to a skeptical world, it had to be made into a story big enough for everyone to see with their own eyes.
The idea
In 2019, the team planted 12,600 coral fragments across 840 Reef Stars, spending three days diving to spell out the word HOPE on the ocean floor. Visible from above, it was incorporated into Google Earth, Maps, and Street View, letting people explore it underwater as well. All ad revenue from the video released on YouTube went toward restoring the reef.
What happened
Coral coverage rose from 2% to 82%, and fish populations increased by 925%. Becoming visible on Google Maps, originally estimated to take one year, happened in just three months. Five countries have adopted this restoration system, and at Cannes Lions 2022 it won Grand Prix in two categories: Industry Craft and Media.
Afterthought
It still feels strange to write that an ad restored an ocean. But the coral keeps growing, the fish really have increased, and anyone can see it just by opening Google Earth. Unable to travel there during the pandemic, the production team pulled this off from their dining tables, having a chef on the island send them GoPro footage. If you can build a coral reef visible from space, you can get through almost anything. That's the kind of commitment this was.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2022
