WWF exists to help create a planet where people and nature thrive, but plastic is polluting the planet and destroying life in the sea.

The only way to stop plastic destroying our ocean life is a globally binding treaty to regulate the material.

BRIEF

Galvanise enough public support to enable the WWF to lobby governments to support the treaty.

OBJECTIVES

1: Attitude – grab the global attention.

KPI: Reach 1.75 billion people, generate 100,000 organic posts.

2: Behaviour - galvanize the planet’s people into action.

KPI: 1 million supporters, from 50 different countries.

3: Action – generate governments commitment.

WWF needed half of the UN’s members to commit to a globally binding plastic treaty to start its negotiation. This was securing 97 (over 50% so that it forces a vote) of the 193 member nations ahead the 2021 UN Environment summit.

KPI: Public commitment from 97 countries by 2020.

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

It meant awareness about our oceans’ plastic problem peaked and spurred seemingly momentous action. Governments introduced bag levies, banned cotton buds and straws.

These gestures may grab attention, but this plastic represents a drop in the ocean. The policies enacted to date were insignificant; case in point: straws that choke marine animals only account for 0.0002% of ocean plastic.

PLASTIC ‘PARIS’ ONLY SOLUTION

Governments were taking easy action, and while it generates headlines and appease citizens, it would not stop plastic destroying life below the water. It was actually a distraction to the more difficult and wide-ranging policies needed – a global, legally binding treaty to regulate the creation, use and recycling of plastic.

IDEA: YOUR PLASTIC DIET

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

CREDIBILITY – DECODE THE SCIENCE

We commissioned The University of Newcastle to analyse studies about human consumption of microplastics. After six months of analysis and peer review, it found the average person consumes around 100,000 microplastics every year.

QUANTIFY 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, with 20 billion of them in use? A credit card.

YOU ARE EATING A CREDIT CARD A WEEK.

With this universal fact, we could turn billions of credit cards in people’s pockets into a personal and confronting reminder of the urgent need for change.

CHALLENGE

How can we create people pressure on the world’s leaders to act on plastic when most people don’t feel its destruction, only its usefulness?

To save our oceans we needed to take the issue out of the water and into people’s lives.

Plastic's infamy comes from shocking scenes about ocean pollution and the far-away environment; but it's so pervasive in nature that it’s infested our everyday environment. The ‘wonder material’ takes a millennia to decompose so only ever breaks down into trillions upon trillions of microplastics.

PLASTIC IS INSIDE US

We’re actually consuming microplastics from our food, water, and even the air. Plastic has entered the food chain, 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.

Plastic Diet was announced to the world’s media and a campaign toolkit was spread around 45 WWF offices.

• Across 11 Asian countries, the Asian Food Network created Plastic Diet recipes with celebrity chefs

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

• In Singapore and Hong Kong, people saw via OOH how much plastic they were eating during mealtimes

• The Thai and India governments used Plastic Det for public awareness campaigns

• In Europe and Latin America, it became part of school curriculums

All activity pushed people to the campaign website. Based on diet and geography, people could calculate how much plastic they were ingesting weekly. After feeling the personal impact of plastic pollution, people were compelled to sign the global petition.

Plastic Diet gave WWF a platform to break in and influence political systems. With the weight of the public support via the signatures, were used by WWF teams to engage lawmakers in summits and conferences, from the G20 to the UN.

ATTITUDE

4.1bn earned media - 234% of target.

BEHAVIOUR

2.03m demanding action - 200% of target

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

ACTION

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.

OTHER: INFLUENCING CHAGE

In the United States, Congress tabled the ‘Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act’. The bill quotes Plastic Diet, while its sponsors used the campaign device to announce it.