Plastic. One of the most used material is utilised in an enormous range of materials and products – from basic household appliances, like paper clips, to bottles, CDs, and all the way to spaceships. Unfortunately, plastic’s low cost and easy manufacturing, versatility, and imperviousness to water comes with a fatal flaw. More than 9 million tons of the synthetic material end up in the ocean every year and kill over one million seabirds, and even 100,000 marine animals. If the society doesn’t take any action, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050.
In comes Sea Shepherd with their mission “to end destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species”. To those familiar with Sea Shepherd, it might come as a surprise that their latest campaign is not there to shock, point out brutal treatment of sea animals, nor it includes horrific pictures of wastelands. The activists at the non-profit, marine conservation organization have taken a completely different approach – education!
Sea Shepherd Global, along with creative agency Fred & Farid Shanghai, decided to fight sea pollution where it matters the most, by educating our little ones. Yet, inspiring children to care about the dangers of marine debris to ocean wildlife might sound a bit far-fetched and it would definitely be quite a difficult task at hand. ‘Though behold! There is a simple, and unique solution – toys. And they are not just ordinary toys, they are Pollutoys!
Unlike being run to death in Sea Shepherd’s famous, and controversial advert, #TheUltimateDeashScene, this answer to humanity’s blunders is much more elegant, and definitely the cutest. Until, of course, you take a look inside the hidden pouches of the 8 hand-sewn toys. They come with a quest to conserve and protect ecosystems and species for future generations and aim to teach kids respect for the oceans and encourage them to care about our planet and its marine wildlife.
Hand-sewn by artisan toy maker Andrea Vida — a passionate and talented toy designer from AVida studio located in Budapest — educational Pollutoys are currently being handed to children in schools around the world. Each of the 8 marine-inspired products resembles a real-life animal with a cool name and comes with an educational booklet. Then if the children look closely at Darla the Dolphin, Mark the Shark, Martha the Ray Manta, Pelle the Pelican, Penny the Penguvin, Turf the Turtle, Waldo the Walrus, and Willy the Whale, they will find their stomach stuffed with trash. The Pollutoys have been created with the help of early childhood teachers who then use the ‘unusual’ intestines as an educative tool.
The project is supported not only by Sea Shepherd and Fred & Farid Shanghai, but also by international organizations CompaNanny, Orange Panda and Magnolia Kindergarten located in the Netherlands and China. Fred & Farid Shanghai also took a closer look at the plastic usage with their ‘Trashpool’ installation executed for Sea Shepherd in 2016.
Credits:
Chief Creative Officers: Fred & Farid Shanghai
Brand Supervisor: Jeroen Botter, Heather Stimmler, Alex Cornelissen
Agency Supervisor: Fanny Landrieu, Solene Marce, Wenwen Zhao
Executive Creative Director: Feng Huang
Copywriter: Xuan Pham, Jean-Baptiste Le Divelec
Art Director: Xuan Pham, Sonali Ranjit
Toy Designer: Andrea Vida
Digital Producer: Benoit Petrus, Louis Caudevilla
Assistant Digital Producer: Adrien Salome