Bihar is a clear example of the unconventional use of media to start a social and media conversation about a persistent concern in society, especially among young people: the future of society, climate change and the need to change established socio-economic models.

BBK is a banking foundation in the Basque Country, Spain, that’s been working for years for the development of the region. In this context, BBK’s main goal is to collaborate with the preservation and optimization of the region’s state of welfare, and wanted to launch a series of actions that help to educate, sensitize and raise awareness about the importance of sustainable competitiveness and its present and future effects for our society. With 75% of young people thinking the future is horrifying, and 56% of them thinking the world is doomed, there was a general feeling of defeatism and the false belief that making sustainable decisions today is useless.

Our goal was to impact a society that had grown comfortable and oversaturated with sustainability messages, waking up this numbed society by materializing how our daily decisions may determine how our society will ultimately look like in the near future.

The term “climate anxiety” was accepted in 2015 as a real condition, and even though 70% of the youth in Spain experienced it, some don’t recognize it as a condition yet. To send a message to the public that with our decisions today we determine whether we rise or drown tomorrow, we designed a giant living sculpture of a girl’s head and anchored in the river to pop up and disappear as the tides grew and lowered. To do that, detailed measurements of the face of a real girl were taken, and a tidal analysis of the estuary was carried out in order to calculate the measurements and create the effect. Pedestrians would see it every day in different stages of drowning, generating a powerful impact in their environment. The campaign finished with the premiere of a short film starring the girl of the sculpture in a dystopic future.

It was a two-phase campaign: one off-brand to generate conversation and awareness about how our decisions have an influence in the future and gain media attention. And an on-brand phase to showcase what could happen in the future, making a call to act more consciously.

We targeted the region’s population and institutional authorities to bring the issue to the UN, ending up engaging in affairs with both national and international organizations and institutions, as well as international media.

The sculpture appeared to the surprise of the Basque on September 22th, 2021, anchored in the middle of the river of Bizkaia for the whole world to see. Shortly after, on October 1st, 2021, the short-film ‘Bihar: choosing tomorrow” premiered to the media and general public, with the previous unveiling of the sculpture working as a teaser for this short-film and the meaning of the whole campaign.

First, on September 22th, 2021, a giant hyper-realist sculpture of a girl’s head anchored in the middle of Bizkaia’s river, designed to pop up and disappear as the tides rose and lowered; Then, on October 1st, 2021, a sci-fi short-film starring the girl that inspired the sculpture, portraying the future of the region suffering the consequences of our unsustainable actions today, based on the work of professional futurists and perspectivists.

Even though it was a regional campaign, it reached both national and international media and institutional authorities.

The campaign went viral reaching +3000 impacts in media and press, with 30% of international coverage as it was present in 75 different countries, and an audience of +200 thousand people, with an AVE of 5 million euros (+87% in KPIs).With a sentiment of 100% positive among all coverage.

The news about the project went viral on social media around the world, with more than 300 million views. Due to its huge success, the film was aired in prime-time on Basque Country’s main TV channel, eitb.

We managed to call the attention of organizations and institutions, both national and international (such as AVAAZ, Basque Country’s government, Greenpeace…), as they got very interested in the project.