With the cooperation of seven clients, we conducted a campaign to communicate their environmental activities, while making people think about the importance of protecting the environment. We aimed to communicate these messages with impact and to a large audience, under the theme 'Stop the Ozone Layer from Growing Larger'.

This campaign reached approximately four million households.

The media team obtained NASA satellite images showing the progression of the hole in the ozone layer and then negotiated with the media to obtain the ideal space to show the growing size of the hole. This was a new approach in newspaper advertising - an ad that develops as the reader turns the pages.

Because our approach was novel and had such tremendous impact, the campaign received magazine news coverage. After the campaign ended, the newspaper was bombarded with inquires from advertising and marketing staff at other companies.

We ran the campaign in October, the month when the size of the ozone hole peaks, in a major daily newspaper with a circulation of four million. For high impact, we adopted the novel approach of having the environmental message intrude prominently into seven pages of the newspaper. The message took the form of a mysterious black stain that, page by page, grew larger. The impression was that this stain was overtaking the newspaper. On the final page, we revealed the meaning of the mysterious black stain — the hole in the ozone layer is growing larger.

MASAFUMI TSUMURA (hakuhodo in progress Inc. Account Executive)