Ad/sorbent
Urban Vision
Issue 44 | September 2017
Agency
Ogilvy & Mather Italy
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officers Giuseppe Mastromatteo, Paolo Iabichino Client Creative Director (Art Director) Giordano Curreri Client Creative Director (Copywriter) Marco Geranzani Senior Art Director Gigi Pasquinelli Senior Copywriter Serena Pulga Graphic Artworker Mario Colombo
Production Team
Print Producer Milena Sirtori Producer Lorena Padovan
Other Credits
Client Service Director Daniele Bacigalupi Account Supervisor Giulia Calderoni
Date
May 2017
Background
Advertising is often accused of being part of the problem – encouraging people to buy products which pollute the atmosphere and threaten the future.
But perhaps advertising can also be part of the solution?
Urban Vision, one of the largest outdoor media companies in Italy, got together with Ogilvy & Mather to find a way.
Idea
A campaign of four environmentally friendly posters was created, which ran in three of the most polluted cities in Europe.
Rather than print on the usual wrapping materials, Urban Vision experimented with a completely new kind of fabric, which used The Breath® created by Anemotech. This cutting-edge surface actually absorbed air pollution. Urban Vision has an exclusive partnership for Out Of Home with Anemotech.
Results
After the trials in Milan, Rome and London, Urban Vision committed to replacing all its wrapping with The Breath® by 2018, thus cleaning the air of the emissions of some 14 million cars in a single year.
Our Thoughts
The print industry seems to have spent much of its time looking at its machinery. At faster, smarter printers and copiers. But, until recently, it doesn't seem to have looked particularly hard at new inks, new materials and new applications of their technology. A bit like Mark Twain, who wrote after his obituary was published in The New York Times, "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated", print continues to exist and even, in certain areas, to thrive. It is inspiring to see a poster contractor prototyping a new material, testing it successfully and then committing to use it on all its wrappings from next year. That's real progress, and we should all be grateful because it makes the advertising industry look more responsible to its critics.