Greenpeace Australia has teamed up with DDB’s Andy Fackrell for a campaign called ‘The Meal of Fortune’, which aims to draw attention to the lack of fish labelling laws in Australia by reminding viewers how little they know about where their fish is sourced from.
The short video for the campaign was shot at Coogee Beach in Sydney and stars a game show presenter who invites passersby enjoying fish and chips to spin the wheel. But instead of winning some kind of price, they find out what they’re eating, where it’s from and how it’s caught.
According to a release, Australians eat 370,000 tonnes of seafood a year and it was predicted they would purchase around $25 million worth of fish and seafood over Easter weekend alone.
The film was designed to put pressure on the Australian government to implement labelling laws, which the release says is a common practice in the US, UK and Europe. By labelling fish appropriately, it could help to pinpoint issues such as overfishing, slave labour, and mercury poisoning from imported fish.
“The problem of Australia’s appalling seafood labeling is a fundamental one that really has to be solved if we want to have abundant, sustainable seafood available to us in the future,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific oceans campaigner Nathaniel Pelle. “But even though it’s such an obvious reform, it’s an issue that’s not as simple to communicate as some other environmental campaigns. That’s why it’s been great to work with Andy at DDB and the generous guys at Revolver who’ve added a creative twist to the campaign that we hope will help us reach a broad audience.”
Fackrell explained that the advertising community needs to become more vocal on environmental issues.
“Consumerism has been partly to blame for the world’s problems. It can also help get us out of the environmental crisis we are leading to. As an advertiser it’s great to be able to contribute to explaining an important consumer message in simple terms. Cause advertising, for want of a better term, has to be on every agency curriculum.”
The next phase of the campaign will involve erecting ‘The Meal Of Fortune’ wheel in front of parliament in Canberra and inviting politicians from all parties to take a spin.
Last year, Fackrell, alongside DDB New Zealand’s Simone McMahon and Toby Morris, wrote a remake of the viral hit ‘Beached As’, which highlighted issues of plastic in the Pacific Ocean.
