To highlight how much plastic is ending up in our oceans, we created a new exhibit at a leading aquarium called ‘the Ocean of the Future’. Instead of fish, we filled it entirely with plastic. We then filmed the reactions of schoolchildren to the tanks full of bottles, bags and food packaging in place of the beautiful marine life they were expecting to see. To enhance the experience further, we created new information signs which described our plastic “species” and the damage they do to the ocean environment and its wildlife.

Because there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050 if we fail to act now, we decided to show people what this would look like. By filling a (fishless) aquarium with hundreds of pieces of plastic waste, we created a reflection of this possible future.

All of the plastic used was collected from a beach near to the aquarium the day before the shoot. We filmed the real reactions of local schoolchildren who we invited on what they thought was a normal school trip. This then became the basis of our global online and social media campaign. A full 90 second film played in cinemas across the UK, and the campaign was also supported by large-scale digital out of home and press ads.

• Greenpeace exceeded their original target of 300,000 petition signatures by over 40%. At the time of writing we had 430,000 signatures and rising.

• 98.5% positivity rating on the YouTube film

• 150,000 people saw the ad at the cinema

• 250,000+ views of social film