Greenpeace UK approached Fred & Eric to create a short film for their 'Restore Forests: Restore Hope’ campaign. Targeting hundreds of the world's biggest consumer goods' companies. Aiming to expose their devastating lack of progress in getting deforestation out of their supply chains.

Our film was timed to be released during the 2019 Consumer Goods Forum’s Global Summit: an annual event that brings consumer goods retailers and manufacturers together globally. Nearly 10 years earlier, these companies committed to removing deforestation from their supply chains by 2020. With only a few months left, these companies were still nowhere near this goal. In fact, they were still expanding into new areas of forest and savannah. Converting once pristine landscapes into cattle ranches and land to grow commodities like soya and palm oil.

Our Process

With a completely open brief, Fred & Eric worked with Greenpeace in a collaborative process to help sketch out their core message. We proposed several different creative treatments in our first steps of coming up with the final treatment. Working closely with Greenpeace until we had a strong idea and visual style to progress with.

A key objective was to make a sharable film for social media platforms. Showcasing the empty environmental claims of these huge companies that are driving deforestation for the sake of profits. Greenpeace's aim was for followers to use and share this video. Ultimately creating noise and interrupting the social media channels connected to the Consumer Goods Forum's event. A strong script and instantly engaging visuals were going to be essential.

We came up with a film of two distinct halves. The first half would become a tongue-in-cheek take on a corporate film: A pastiche on the stereotypical films regularly produced by the big companies being targeted. Perhaps momentarily causing the viewer to think this was a real corporate promotional film. We mocked the glossy execution of corporate films by using over-the-top shiny infographics, cheesy stock imagery and vague graph data. Naming the fictional company MidasCorp helped to hint at the greed behind what drives deforestation.

The Hack

Unexpectedly, the corporate video is then ‘hacked’. Interrupting the vague and generic promises of this fictitious corporate. A sudden turn which invites the viewer to keep watching as it becomes clear this is not a regular corporate piece. Footage of the deforestation invades the flow in a jarring manner and an urgent switch in the voice-over and sound design immediately conjures an urgent tone.

This second half of our film is where Greenpeace take over and the tone becomes gritty and urgent. The visuals are powerful and strong, combining a creative mix of different film and animation techniques. Visualising the urgent issues and highlighting unarguable facts behind the narrative urgency. Creating a high energy call to arms; urging the world’s biggest companies to: "Change now, or go extinct".