We were challenged to generate as much awareness as possible for Greenpeace’s savethearctic.org project and to collect as many signatures as possible for the petition against the destructive activities of major oil companies in the Arctic.

To achieve these objectives we had to come up with a creative idea which had maximum impact on a minimal budget. The idea was to turn the CEOs of the major oil companies into “artists” and exhibit their work as part of an art exhibition with the theme “Nature in Danger”. The works portray animals native to the Arctic dying, and are painted in oil on canvas.

This idea creates a direct link between the actions of the CEOs and the dying animals – a unique way to highlight the negative effects of drilling for oil in the Arctic waters. The PR strategy focused on viral distribution, which we gave a little boost by informing the media about these unusual artworks. Thanks to the awareness generated among the public, savethearctic.org had a large number of visitors and was able to gather more than 1.2 million signatures for the petition against drilling for oil in the Arctic.

The oil paintings were shown at a private exhibition with the theme “Nature in Danger”. They portrayed dying animals and were given titles such as “Extinction” or “Arctic destruction”. The “artists” were the CEOs of the oil companies responsible for the disasters depicted in the paintings. The price tags on the paintings were ridiculously high, with one priced at over 4 billion dollars – the amount needed to clean up just one oil spill in the Arctic. The “artworks” really caught the eye and led to an important discussion during the exhibition, which continued online on Facebook and other social networks.

At the art exhibition, we were able to win many new supporters for savethearctic.org. But far more supporters signed the petition thanks to the PR that this idea generated. In total, savethearctic.org was able to gather more than 1.2 million signatures for petitions against drilling for oil in the Arctic.