The Face of Litter
Hong Kong Clean Up
Issue 36 | September 2015
Agency
Ogilvy Hong Kong
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Reed Collins Executive Creative Director Rafael Guida Creative Director Jim Fong Senior Copywriter Momoko Yiu Senior Art Director Jo Wong Head Of Creative Technology Craig Mason Production Parabon NanoLabs CEO Hong Kong CleanUp Lisa Christensen
Date
April 2015
Background
A staggering 16,000 tons of waste was dumped in Hong Kong each day. Despite heavy penalties, littering remained a citywide problem.
One of the biggest problems in this generally law-abiding society was that litter is a faceless crime. If litter-bugs weren't caught red-handed, they went unpunished.
Idea
Litter samples were collected and sent to Parabon Nanolabs, where DNA was extracted and analysed to create an exact genetic profile of the litterer.
Using DNA phenotyping, hair colour, eye colour, facial morphology and ethnicity could be retrieved and used to make assumptions about the litterer's age and looks.
On Earth Day 2015, those faces appeared on posters and digital screens throughout the city, as well as back at the scene of the crime. Social media supported the campaign with paid posts and an educational video, creating the ultimate name and shame campaign.
Results
During the 14 day campaign period, the campaign reached over 3.9 million people across social media, and had a PR advertising value of HK$5million from global
media exposure.
Our Thoughts
In our pre-Cannes issue, several creative directors tipped this for awards. Perhaps it was just too weird for the several juries who reviewed it, an idea that has too much of Big Brother about it for comfort. It was shortlisted for Media, Integrated and Innovation. Strangely, nothing in Creative Data even though it is about data capture in its most elemental form.