Ahmedabad sees Blue Humpback Whales on roads

World Environment Day is when every brand, big or small, wants to contribute to the cause and ride the wave. For the past 14 years, JadeBlue, a luxury retail lifestyle menswear chain, has been carrying out awareness campaigns every June 5 - World Environment Day.

This year, the brand, with Fresh Lime Soda Creatives - an Ahmedabad-based agency - has installed a 40-foot-long whale in the city to raise awareness about global warming. The whale "swims" on the roads of Ahmedabad, giving people a chilling jolt of the future that can be very stark and gory if they don't choose to act on global warming. There were four such installations in the city.

JadeBlue along with Fresh Lime Soda Creatives has installed a 40-feet-long whale to create awareness around global warming.

"Global warming has always been an important issue and we thought placing a large creature like a whale right in the middle of the road, would serve as a grim reminder of a future that could very well be true," says Sajit Surendran, founder, Fresh Lime Soda Creatives.

Forty-foot cutouts of a blue Humpback Whale were printed on flex, mounted on a board and hung by wires. But placing huge cutouts on roads could be dangerous for commuters; hence the creative team strategically chose sites that are visible, but do not hinder drivers or pedestrians.

JadeBlue usually creates such installations for Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Surat. This year, however, the brand decided to install its whale cutouts only in Ahmedabad since executing the idea proved quite challenging. But due to the response it received, the brand is now planning to take it to other cities as well.

As part of the campaign, shopping bags with awareness messages have been distributed in 20 stores of JadeBlue for a week. Tree saplings have also been distributed in all JadeBlue stores on World Environment Day. The total budget for this year was close to Rs. 5 lacs.

"It's a 360-degree campaign that we have undertaken - from billboards to print and digital. Ambient media has been a major focus every year," informs Surendran.

JadeBlue has been addressing various environmental concerns every year. One year, cutouts of birds were installed on a wire holding a placard that read "We are leaving your city". It was designed to remind people to place water out for birds during summer as the temperature can sometimes soar above 45 degrees Celsius in the western part of the country.

"In one of the other previous campaigns, we placed a giant shoe around a tree trunk drawing an analogy with the cutting of trees being akin to killing yourself," informs Surendran.