What to Know
- A creative problem-solving agency challenged their Twitter followers to imagine what picket signs sea creatures would bring to a protest.
- The meme contest, which aimed to raise awareness around World Oceans Day June 8, went viral on Twitter Moments.
- The World Oceans Day team loved how the agency used their social media platform to generate a buzz around marine life conservation.
Step aside environmental advocates -- endangered sea creatures are speaking up for themselves for a change.
Kind of.
In observance of World Oceans Day June 8, a creative problem-solving agency called Article Group challenged its Twitter followers to imagine and execute what kind of picket sign a marine animal would bring to a protest.
Holy mackerel, did the sea creatures have a few choice words for humans.
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From a disapproving otter saying, “You otter be ashamed” to a resentful turtle saying, “Your plastic straws really suck,” the equally cute and communicative submissions went viral on social media.
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Article Group's Rae Paoletta said this proved that animals on the internet equals magic.
According to Paoletta, the Twitter campaign’s success was a testament to the power of meme culture among millennials.
“People can use memes, which I have always said is like the internet's love language, to talk about something that's really serious, which is oceans coastal cleanup,” Paoletta said.
Paoletta said that it is the responsibility of everyone, including companies across all industries, to think critically about the planet all year long.
“It's like giving a voice to the voiceless, and in this case, the animals are literally the victims of human pollution,” Paoletta said. “This gives a sense of power to the creatures and the animals that can't be in Congress or be lobbying for rights.”
The World Oceans Day team saw the campaign and loved how Article Group is raising awareness about the cause through fun and educational graphics, said World Oceans Day director Samantha Mackiewicz.
“It's campaigns like this that really grab people's attention, that gets them more involved and increases that buzz on social media for World Oceans Day,” Mackiewicz said.
Mackiewicz especially appreciated how many of the submissions discussed plastic pollution. One day, Mackiewicz hopes that World Oceans Day won’t require an ocean cleanup because there will not be anymore plastics to remove.
Article Group announced Dom Garret -- a marketing director for Bitcoin ATM company Coinme -- as the winner Thursday.
Garret said he was just having fun when he created his trophy-winning image: an angler fish, known for living in the deepest parts of the sea, saying, “I have some of the worst eyesight on the planet and even I can see this is a problem.”
The self-proclaimed dad joke lover said animals should not bear the burden of mistakes made by humankind.
“Memes have been the language of the Internet for a long time,” Garret said. “I think that they can add some brevity to pretty dark situations that we are grappling with daily.”
