Mexico is one of the biggest plastic consumers on the planet. Because of this, plastic pollution on Mexico’s beaches has reached critical levels and now, the country is at risk of losing their beaches forever. Corona wanted Mexicans to know how serious the issue had become.

To show how plastic pollution has changed Mexico’s beaches, we changed Corona’s packaging for the first time in 100 years. We created ‘Losing Blue’: the cans that showed how just how polluted Mexico’s beaches are.

We worked with marine biologists and environmental institutions to determine the level of plastic found in 10 popular Mexican beaches. Then, we visualized the data on a range of Corona cans, using the blue to show the level of pollution found in the affected beaches.

Our target were young Mexicans living in the city with their parents. Unfortunately, living inland, young Mexicans didn’t see a connection between the plastic they use and the plastic that ends up in their oceans.

With a limited budget we needed to maximise impact, using data to make sure our idea came at the right time, the right place and with the right message.

Using ecological data, we identified the beaches in Mexico suffering from the most devastating plastic pollution. We overlayed this with travel data of where young Mexican’s would be travelling most during Mexico’s favourite holiday period, Semana Santa (Easter) to determine the ten beaches we would target in our campaign. With the help of local marine biologists, we were able to determine the level of plastic per square meter at each beach and represent this visually on the can.

Corona’s entire branding is based on a beach sunset. The blue represents the ocean, the yellow the sun, and the white the sky. So to raise awareness about how plastic pollution has affected Mexico’s beaches, we changed the branding on our cans.

Using Corona’s iconic blue, we showed the level of plastic pollution found on each of the 10 affected beaches. The more plastic we found, the less blue we showed.

We distributed 200, 000 limited-edition cans across the country, targeting locals from the polluted beaches as well as the wider community. When people took the cans, they took away a new understanding of how plastic pollution was damaging Mexico’s beaches.

Our cans sold out within days and sparked a national conversation about the fight against plastic pollution. Most importantly, the cans spurred Mexicans into action, resulting in 30% more people volunteering for beach clean-ups across the country. By changing our cans, we changed people’s attitude towards plastic pollution.