We built a spectacular life-sized plastic whale made from 250kg of plastic recovered from Britain’s oceans and beaches – a dramatic visual representation of the amount of plastic that ends up the world’s oceans EVERY SECOND.

We ran a national competition inviting the British public to name the whale – Plasticus, and we took it on a nationwide tour of Britain, to engage the public with a visually compelling activation and educate them about the impact of single use plastic on our oceans.

We revealed the whale at a high-profile press conference and London’s iconic Tower Bridge. Representatives from Sky Ocean Resue were joined by two British celebrities known for their passionate views about environmental issues – the esteemed explore Sir Ranulph Fiennes and former British supermodel Jodie Kidd. Together they launched the campaign, revealing that whale is made of the same amount of plastic released into the ocean every second.

Following its launch, the whale hit the roads on a customized Sky Ocean Rescue branded truck, which transported it to a further 12 activation sites across Britain. Brand ambassadors at each site engaged with the public, encouraging people of all ages to be an #OceanHero and say no to single-use plastics. We handed out 10,000 re-fillable bottles to help demonstrate how simple, small changes can make a big difference, and hosted three beach cleans during the course of the tour.

We engaged over a million people on the national tour and a further 116 million people through national, regional and social media. We generated extensive media coverage in broadcast, print and online with 322 articles published.

We overcame the challenging barrier of the client being a competing news broadcaster. It has become Sky’s most successful PR-driven consumer focused CSR initiative in history.

We put 10,000 reusable bottles into British hands and ran a national competition to name the whale, which over 12,800 people entered.

We have established important stakeholder relationships for Sky, as numerous campaigners and causes publicly supported the campaign including Greenpeace, Surfers Against Sewage, Love My Beach, The Marine Conservation Society, Keep Britain and Keep Wales Tidy.

The initiative was so successful that in 2018 Plasticus the Whale is now undertaking an extensive European tour, having already visited Dublin, Malta and Rome with 12 more city activations planned.