There is no shortage of shocking data that surrounds the plastic crisis.

In fact, its so big, so shocking, that people cannot relate to it. Data can paralyse an issue as well as enlighten it.

We distilled a mountain of environmental data into a singular and visualised it into a compelling image that transformed how people around the world perceived the plastic threat.

By quantifying the data it was no longer about what we throw out, but what we eat.

When you think about being forced to eat a credit card of plastic every week - its personal.

The plastic crisis is awash with big and shocking data points: 10m tons dumped into oceans every year, the 1.6m square kilometre Pacific Garbage Patch, 1m sea birds and 100,000 sea mammals killed every year.

The data is so big that the issue has become abstract and almost meaningless

The problem had been framed at a super scale in far-flung corners of the planet it’s near-impossible to appreciate and act on. People were blinded to the true devastation of the pollution. We see and hear about plastic, but couldn’t relate and we didn’t feel its impact on our lives.

BRIEF

WWF needed a lobbying tool – one million supporters to pressure global governments to collectively regulate plastic to stop it destroying the planet.

Objectives

Commitment of 97 governments as WWF needed half of the UN’s 193 members to kick-start a global plastic treaty.

Plastic's notoriety comes from shocking data about the pollution in the far-away environment. The ‘wonder material’ takes up to a millennia to decompose so it only ever breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces until it becomes trillions upon trillions of microplastics.

INSIGHT - We’re actually consuming microplastics from our food, water, and even the air. Plastic has entered every level of the food chain and so has entered our bodies.

INSIGHT - It’s impossible to ignore plastic’s impact on nature when you’re also the creature eating, drinking and breathing the pollution.

INNOVATION: Your Plastic Diet

Our diets now contain plastic, we are inevitably consuming it, so our bodies are becoming infested with plastic pollution.

By viusalising the data into everyday plastic objects - the shock factor of eating a pen, or coathanger or Credit Card turned the data into a personal, relatable health crisis.

HUMANISING THE TRILLIONS

The University of Newcastle was commissioned to analyse scientific studies about human consumption of microplastics. It found the average person consumes around 100,000 microplastics every year.

QUANTIFYING THE DIET

100,000 microplastics equates to approximately 250 grams of plastic a year. People are therefore ingesting 5 grams of plastic pollution every week.

What plastic object weighs 5 grams and is ubiquitous around the world, with 20 billion of them in use? A credit card.

YOU’RE EATING A CREDIT CARD A WEEK.

This direct and single-minded fact became the centre of gravity for the entire campaign. It made the data RELATABLE and plastic pollution UNFORGETTABLE. It made the plastic problem UNIVERSAL yet PERSONAL – this is a piece of plastic that has people’s name on it, it’s with them every day, this fact turned everyone’s cards into a personalised media channel

The data about plastic pollution was dramatized through the credit card – a universally felt single-minded representation of the plastic pollution crisis.

Further activated by WWF offices:

• In Malaysia, MFL Cup Final soccer match informed 80,000 fans it would take them 10 seasons to eat the plastic seat they sat on.

• Across 11 Asian countries, the Asian Food Network’s celebrity chefs created recipes with 5g of plastic.

• In Hong Kong and Singapore billboards shown during mealtimes informed people they were also eating plastic.

• At the G20 and UN, packs featuring a physical version of the campaign's plastic card influenced policymakers.

All activity directed to an interactive website. Based on diet and geography, people took a test to see how much plastic they were likely ingesting a week. A personalized ‘Plastic Diet report’ was generated that people could share by signing the global petition.

Plastic Diet proves vivid data is more powerful than big data.

ATTITUDE

Result: 4.1bn earned media impact - 234% of target.

BEHAVIOUR

Result: 2.03m demanding action - 200% of target

Plastic Diet became WWF’s largest and fastest growing single public action in its’ 60-year history.

ACTION

Result: 131 governments publicly called for an agreement on plastic pollution – 135% of target.

“More than two-thirds of UN member states have declared they are open to a new agreement to stem the rising tide of plastic waste.” The Guardian.

Plastic Diet’s 2 million supporters have eaten an estimated 791,473,800 grams of plastic and 158,294,760 credit cards since the campaign launched. And the impact on kickstarting fundamental change has so far been enormous. In the words of WWF: “A global, legally binding solution to plastic would simply not have been imaginable prior to the launch of the Plastic Diet campaign.”