New Greenpeace advertising campaign sees Downing Street photographers disappear under 1.8m kg of plastic waste
(Image credit: Greenpeace)
A new advertising campaign by Greenpeace features a startling scene in which a pack of press photographers outside Downing Street are buried under a sea of plastic waste. The video, uploaded this week to YouTube, denounces the UK government's strategy of offloading its plastic waste onto other countries.
'Wasteminster: A Downing Street Disaster' begins with a model of Prime Minister Boris Johnson (voiced by English impressionist Matt Forde) extolling the virtues of the UK government's commitment to tackling plastic waste before plastic bottles start falling from the sky.
Before long both he and the furiously clicking photographers are buried beneath 1.8m kg of plastic (the amount Greenpeace claims the UK exports to other countries every day).
(Image credit: Greenpeace)
The Prime Minister seems to be more fortunate than the photojournalists, as he surfs the growing mound of plastic waste towards the gates at the entrance to Downing Street, while they topple off their ladders and disappear beneath it. (Cabinet minister Michael Gove doesn't fare too well either.)
Greenpeace points out that the UK is the second biggest producer of plastic waste per person in the world, behind the US, and because it is producing so much it is dumping it on other countries that can't cope with it either. However, the government deny they are doing this.
The environmental organization teamed up with London-based Park Village Studios, whose talented animators helped show what this amount of plastic would look like piled up on Boris Johnson's doorstep. The film has already has more than 27,000 views.
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If correct, Greenpeace's findings are truly staggering. The government have yet to comment on the organization's claims
Laurence is an NCTJ-trained journalist with nearly 20 years' editorial experience gained on a wide range of publications, from The Beirut Times in Lebanon to The Sunday Times, and including recent freelance engagements with Future's cycling and automotive portfolios, Outdoor Fitness, and The English Home. He has recently been undertaking a sports broadcast journalism MA at Southampton Solent, gaining valuable TV and radio experience, and am currently videographer for Frome Town FC soccer team. He is the author of Bikepacking (Wild Things Publishing, 2016).
