A whopping 91% of the planet’s single-use plastic never gets recycled. This means that the majority of the straws people use to sip their cocktails at concerts and music festivals often end up in our oceans and ruin the party for all kinds of marine life.

BACARDI briefed us to extend their above-the-line campaign partnership with artists Major Lazer and Anitta while leveraging their nonprofit partner, Lonely Whale, to create a fame-driving corporate social responsibility campaign that would improve the brand’s image, as well as create an ongoing platform for good.

Major Lazer and Anitta also wanted to achieve additional exposure and PR for their exclusive track, “Make It Hot,” created for the campaign.

Turn something that sucks into something that slaps.

BACARDI and artists Major Lazer and Anitta teamed up to transform consumers’ used plastic straws into limited-edition vinyl records through a first-of-its-kind upcycling process, and pressed them with an exclusive track called “Make It Hot.” All proceeds went to fund future ocean-saving initiatives through Lonely Whale.

On a consumer level, we were targeting 21–34-year-old rum drinkers who shared a passion for music, first approaching them in-bar when they would be purchasing and consuming BACARDI products, as well as approaching them on social media.

We were also targeting the bar and venue owners themselves, aiming to educate them on the harmful effects of single-use plastic, as well as get them to eliminate all single-use plastic from their businesses and events.

Over the past year, BACARDÍ collected consumers’ used plastic straws in 45 states across the country using bar-top collection bins.

Then, through a first-of-its-kind upcycling process, the 60,000+ used straws were transformed into 250 limited-edition records featuring an exclusive track by Major Lazer and Anitta.

The record release was announced on #GivingTuesday (December 3) through a series of Instagram Stories featuring the artists, and made available for purchase online, selling out in just over a week, and generating a global wave of positive social response.

With each purchase of a one-of-a-kind record, people prevented 600 single-use plastic straws from polluting our oceans, and all proceeds went to fund future sea-saving initiatives through Lonely Whale.

This batch of records, however, was just the beginning. BACARDÍ has pledged to remove 1 billion plastic straws globally by the end of 2020, extending the program to other markets and artists around the world.

All 250 limited-edition records sold out in just over a week and the campaign as a whole earned the brand over 125 million media impressions. More important, BACARDI has created an ongoing platform to prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution and protect all life below water while permanently reducing the amount of single-use plastic in their global supply chain.