Thanks at CELB for finally putting a name (and links) on a great advertising campaign aiming at increasing public awareness about environmental pollution that caught my attention several months ago in Shanghai’s metro stations.
The adverts titled “Shan Shui Environmental Art” were developed by JWT Shanghai advertising agency for China Environment Protection Foundation (CEPF) and released in March 2009.
The concept is fairly simple (some might say it is a cliché), but I think it is pretty effective: from away, the three print advertisements – Global Warming, Industrial Pollution and Automotive Pollution – look like traditional Chinese ink paintings with mountains and rivers landscapes (referring to the art style called Shan Shui). But when getting closer, the mountains and rivers are actually made of cars, power-line towers and pollution … therefore showing the impact of human activities and economic development on the environment.
The ad posters were placed in high visibility areas and in subway stations in Shanghai, along with an animated film version played in Shanghai’s metro hub, People Square Station, definitely catching the attention of the 1.5 million passengers that go through Shanghai metro stations everyday.
The three paintings were created by well known Chinese landscape artist Yong Liang Yang (click here to enlarge pictures):
- #1: Automative Pollution
- #2: Global Warming
- #3: Industrial Pollution
Credits: Advertising Agency : JWT, Shanghai, China // Executive Creative Director : Yang Yeo // Art Directors : Lillie Zhong, Yang Yong Liang // Copywriters : Jacqueline Ye, Rafael Freire // Graphic Designer : Sean Tang // Photographer : Yang Yong Liang // Illustrator : Yang Yong Liang Additional sources: here and here
Wow, these are really interesting ads. Thanks for sharing, Perrine. I am enjoying learning about CSR/sustainability in China through your writing.
How significant of an issue is this for the government, as well as average people in China?
Hi James, thanks for reading the blog and for your very good question.(and sorry for the delay of my response!!).
Yes, the Chinese government cares about the environment but to a certain extent…. the most important thing to understand is that the priority in China remains the economic growth – and this has only intensified over the past year with the global financial crisis. The ultimate goal of sustained economic growth is to maintain social stability and the Chinese government’s priority of a ‘harmonious society’. Therefore, the government acts on environmental issues when they pose a direct risk to maintaining this ‘harmonious society (i.e. pollution of factories leading to protests, etc…). To the extent that environmental protection will impact the China’s economic competitiveness or ‘flexibility’, then the government is unlikely to take restrictive measures.
For the consumers, I would say that environmental awareness is increasing, of course, but it is very different from what we see in Western countries. Consumers / Citizens in China care about what directly impacts themselves and their families (health, etc…), and thus local and critical issues such water pollution tend to be hot topics, while climate change remains a global / conceptual issue that consumers do not link to their daily lives, and other environmental issues. The latest environmental protest in the south of China which happened this week was due to a very NIMBY approach (not in my backyard, i.e. local residents refusing the construction of some industrial facilities near their homes), rather than a pure concern about the environment itself.
I don’t know if I managed to give a relatively good picture of the situation. it is extremely complex as it varies from issues to issues. If you want more information on the topic, I would recommend you to have a look at the Insights Paper on China’s Position on Climate Change, published by Edelman Shanghai, and that I recently blogged about.
Cheers, and thanks for reading,
Perrine