Coca-Cola: Recycle Me
Coca-Cola tasked Ogilvy New York / Open X to significantly boost recycling rates for its packaging. The brand aimed to use its global recognition to inspire a mass audience to recycle every bottle and can, supporting its 2030 sustainability goals.
Creative Idea
Coca-Cola deliberately crushed its iconic logo to visually represent the recycling process.
By deliberately crushing its universally recognized logo into unique, imperfect designs for OOH and digital, Coca-Cola transformed its brand identity into a powerful, unmissable call to action, visually embodying the recycling process and inspiring mass participation.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
Coca-Cola possessed a universally recognized brand identity and a clear commitment to making its packaging 100% recyclable.
Category
Beverage brands typically maintain pristine, consistent branding, often highlighting product freshness or lifestyle, rarely altering their core visual identity.
Customer
Consumers needed a simple, impactful, and visually arresting reminder to recycle, often overlooking the physical transformation involved.
Culture
A growing global awareness and urgency around environmental sustainability and waste reduction provided a receptive cultural context for action.
Company
Coca-Cola possessed a universally recognized brand identity and a clear commitment to making its packaging 100% recyclable.
Category
Beverage brands typically maintain pristine, consistent branding, often highlighting product freshness or lifestyle, rarely altering their core visual identity.
Strategy:
Leverage iconic brand assets to visually embody a critical environmental process, driving mass participation through disruption.
Customer
Consumers needed a simple, impactful, and visually arresting reminder to recycle, often overlooking the physical transformation involved.
Culture
A growing global awareness and urgency around environmental sustainability and waste reduction provided a receptive cultural context for action.
Strategy:
Leverage iconic brand assets to visually embody a critical environmental process, driving mass participation through disruption.
Strategy Technique
Exaggerate to Reveal the Truth
The campaign dramatically crushed the iconic Coca-Cola logo. This exaggeration visually represented the physical reality of recycling, making an often-unseen process impactful and memorable.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Break visual expectations
The campaign intentionally deformed Coca-Cola's iconic, pristine logo. This unexpected visual disruption immediately grabs attention and powerfully symbolizes the physical act of recycling.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
The campaign's craft excels in transforming a physical act of recycling into a visually striking and brand-relevant design system, demonstrating innovative use of typography and design to convey a powerful message.
The core idea is manifested through the ingenious design of hundreds of unique logos from crushed cans, maintaining brand recognition while conveying a message of recycling.
The iconic Coca-Cola script is masterfully adapted and distorted to reflect the physical crushing, yet remains legible and instantly recognizable across all variations.
The product photography of the crushed cans is precise and high-quality, capturing the physical deformation that serves as the direct inspiration for the digital designs.
The overall visual consistency, from the studio shots to the outdoor media placements, is meticulously maintained, reinforcing the brand's message with a cohesive and impactful aesthetic.
