Did you know that Canadians use more than their body weight in plastic each year? Canada borders 3 oceans, and spans a total length of 202,080 kms, (the largest coastline in the world) and it’s becoming littered with plastic waste. The power of this brand experience was making people feel a personal connection to the plastic water pollution problem in our own lakes, rivers and ocean shorelines. The creation of plastic mannequins made entirely of plastic waste made for an artistically enticing, yet shocking activation that made its way across Canada in 2021.

As a brand synonymous with the beach, Corona has also made it our mission to protect it from plastic waste with a global sustainability commitment to help reduce the amount of plastic pollution in our oceans and shorelines. In 2021, the brand partnered with Ocean Wise / Great Canadian Shoreline, a sustainability partner with a similar mandate to help reduce plastic pollution in Canadian waterways, to bring awareness to this present issue both in Canada and globally.

Corona Plastic Beachgoers was an experiential activation where we created life sized mannequins made entirely out of plastic waste retrieved from Canadian shorelines. We partnered with a nationally recognized artist to build our ‘plastic people’ doing familiar beach activities. The aim was to help make the threat of plastic pollution to our shorelines personal by helping people visualize the fact that we contribute our body weight in plastic waste each year by creating a physical manifestation of the problem. Equal parts jarring and visually stunning, we took the Plastic Beachgoers to waterfronts across Canada, to give Canadians a better understanding of the threat plastic pollution is causing to our shorelines here at home.

Canadians largely understand the threat and impact of plastic pollution globally, but don’t think of it as an issue that happens in their own backyard. We needed to make the problem personal to shake people’s complacency about their own contributions to plastic water pollution in a creatively impactful way. We found out that the average Canadian uses almost twice their body weight in plastic waste each year, with much of it ending up in our waterways. So we set out to bring this alarming statistic to life at the right time (World Oceans Day), in the right locations (Major city waterways), in a way that could be personally experienced for maximum impact.

We partnered with Canadian artist, Caitlin Doherty, to create life sized mannequins made entirely out of plastic waste that resembled everyday beachgoers. She began by scouring local Canadian shorelines to find plastic waste that had washed up. Sadly, there was lots to be found, reinforcing the shocking statistic that Canadians use more than half their weight in plastic waste each year. From there, we brought the beachgoers to the beach.

Location was key to create contrast between the natural beauty of Canada’s waterways, and the presence of plastic waste. Our beachgoers popped up across Canada throughout the month of June – Kitsilano Beach in Vancouver, Harbourfront in Toronto and Baie de Beauport in Quebec City. In each location we educated Canadians on the impact of lifestyle choices on our environment, and provided ways to learn about and sign up for Corona’s shoreline cleanups in partnership with Ocean Wise.

Corona’s plastic beachgoers campaign has a significant impact in making plastic water pollution more personal for Canadians. The campaign generated 40.2M+ media impressions and 156 featured stories including online, print and broadcast, surpassing our earned media KPI by 160%. On-site, we generated over 33,000 QR code interactions from people interacting with the experience. Most importantly, Plastic Beachgoers helped the brand triple its initial goal by cleaning up over 6 million m2 of shorelines across Canada. Overall, the initiative significantly increased consumers' perception that Corona is a brand that cares about people, the community and the world.

From its inception to execution, this campaign was all about reinforcing Corona’s corporate social responsibility commitment to reduce the amount of plastic pollution in our oceans and shorelines. By creating a visually stunning artistic expression of the plastic pollution problem set against the backdrop of Canada’s most scenic shorelines, both onlookers of the experience and viewers of our content became aware of their contribution to the plastic pollution problem in their own backyard.

Every decision in the actual execution and production was made to minimize environmental impact. The experience was created using actual plastic waste retrieved from Canadian waterways, all signage was printed using up-cycled cardboard material, and the beachgoers remain on hand as a brand asset which can be leveraged as needed in future before being recycled through the proper channels.