Happiness Brussels sent two creatives on a journey to Grand Isle, La. to gather oil from the BP spill to be used to create posters raising money for the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.
Talk about using a negative to create something positive.
The end result was "Oil & Water Do Not Mix," a limited edition of 200 posters designed by British graphic artist Anthony Burrill. He also came up with the slogan "Oil & Water Do Not Mix." Burrill is known for his use of short messages, namely "Work Hard and Be Nice To People."
Each piece was signed and numbered by Burrill and sold online. All profits went to CRCL, and bothBurrill and Happiness Brussels created the campaign pro bono.
"The Gulf of Mexico oil disaster was sensationalized around the world, perhaps for all of the wrong reasons," said Grégory Titeca, creative director and head of R&D at Happiness Brussels. "The scale of the failures of the brand, its company officers, and BP's lost revenues, floated above and obscured the true story, namely the legacy of millions of gallons of crude oil flooding the fragile ecosystem of a huge circular area of the ocean. Small organisations now have to deal with this burdensome legacy. We decided that a positive event was needed to make people around the world engage directly with the situation and CRCL by taking positive action. And the oil itself would be at the heart of this," continued Titeca.
Once the oil was collected, Happiness Brussels spent three days at Purple Monkey Design in New Orleans, individually screen-printing each poster.
The design of "Oil & Water Do Not Mix" features the words "Oil & Water," printed in oil, above a wave. Inside the oil-colored wave are the words "Do Not Mix" printed in white to illustrate that the pair don't mix well together.
Each €150 poster was sold to buyers from Australia, Japan, Czech Republic, the U.K., Canada, Bermuda and the USA. The first 160 posters were sold without a single ad placement supporting the initiative.
Check out a video documenting the oil collection and screen-printing here, and a finished poster here.
Anyone interested in further helping can donate $25 to the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana Oil Spill Recovery program. That donation pays forone Gulf Saver Bag and restores one square foot of Gulf Coast ecosystem.
I am a pretty brutal cynic and kharma believer. When the Gulf Coast gave a resounding approval for anti-environmental Congresspeople and Senators it was the final straw to me. I have zero sympathy for them from the oil spill. But the benefits from this effort are really going to the coastline and the animals and that I can approve of. The animals are the innocents and the people are not.