New campaign highlights the extent of plastic pollution

A new campaign by the Plastic Soup Foundation, DEPT® and CZAR has revealed shocking figures about microplastics. The organisation has discovered that nearly 80 percent of the meat and dairy products from farm animals tested by scientists in the Netherlands contain microplastics, according to a new study by the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam commissioned by the Plastic Soup Foundation. This message is captivatingly summarised in a campaign video, developed pro bono by DEPT® in collaboration with production house, CZAR.

The aim of the campaign, which was distributed through a press release and influencers, is to make people aware that meat and dairy products contain plastic. In addition, the Plastic Soup Foundation wants to encourage people to sign a petition asking the Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality to assure consumers that the Dutch food chain is plastic-free.

“The initiative for the collaboration came from DEPT® and their ambition to provide pro bono services to tackle important challenges,” said Maria Westerbos, director and founder of Plastic Soup Foundation. “The research into plastic in meat and dairy products that we were working on at the time immediately came to mind. It is extremely important to make people aware of these new insights, and we were able to bring this to the attention with the help of DEPT®.”

“The theme brought with it a lot of emotions,” said Ramin Bahari, Creative Director at DEPT®. “Plastic pollution is a huge problem, so we are proud to have delivered a creative concept that really touches people and gets the message across clearly.”

In the film, we see the recognisable image of parents who react very quickly when children put plastic in their mouths. But then the viewer is held up to a mirror. The message: where we protect our children from eating plastic, no one is doing the same for us. The soundtrack, a custom version of the children’s song ‘Tasty Food’, emphasises the contrast on an emotional level between how we treat our children and ourselves.

The project was carried out in collaboration with CZAR director Willem Gerritsen, Soundcircus, and Soundstudio 22Ghosts, who also contributed pro-bono to the film