Greenpeace: Suicide On Air

Cars pump over 3,000 tons of carbon dioxide every day. This is accelerating global warming and gradually suffocating our planet…and us. To help turn the tide, Greenpeace via Grey Hong Kong wanted to persuade Hong Kong's 380,000 drivers to stop polluting by launching a campaign for a Car Free Day 2009.

Solution/Concept:
Seeing is believing. To promote the message “Keep driving its no different to suicide”we used a cell phone to film an ordinary family in broad daylight in a public car park connecting their car exhaust to a tube which led into their car, climbing into the car, starting the engine and committing suicide.
To create a viral campaign we circulated the film on YouTube under different a title : A four-member family commit suicide. At first the film ran with no comment, no advertising and no logos.
After a week on air, we added a super to the end of the film that reminded viewers that “Cars pump 3,000 tons of carbon dioxide into our air every day. Keep driving, who will suffer? Followed by a closing super inviting viewers to Support Car Free Day on 22 Sept.
Result:
Within 24 hours, over 20,000people watched the film and talked about it online. This led to the news to pick up on the story. On the same day, the police got involved and it was immediately taken off YouTube.
Later, after the message had been reviewed, almost all public sector and commercial organizations, several senior government officials and the Hong Kong Chief Executive, Donald Tsang, voiced their support for a Car Free Day and combating the climate crisis.