SC Johnson Tackles Plastic Waste in Epic, Adorable Ad

Plastic waste is an aspect of the global environmental crisis that’s cut through with the American public – a clear majority are aware it’s a serious problem, with litter and plastic pollution damaging the environment and endangering food chains. They also feel powerless to stop it – and no surprise, since only 9% of plastic enters the recycling stream.

SC Johnson is one of a growing number of businesses taking responsibility over the plastic they use, and they’ve teamed up with advocacy groups to push for stricter legislation on plastic waste. As you’d expect from a consumer-facing brand, advertising plays a central role in this effort. Last month they launched a campaign, Join Zuzu, with an epic three-minute advocacy ad, “Zuzu’s Journey”.

But who is Zuzu? He’s a hermit crab from the Philippines, who swaps the shell he lives in for a discarded plastic bottle missed out in a beach cleanup effort. The film follows him on a perilous journey as he tries to get the bottle recycled. Zuzu finds himself trapped on a container ship, and the little animal crosses oceans and winds up in an American diner, where he befriends a kindly trucker who takes him to the SC Johnson recycling center. There he can finally shed his plastic burden and return home to his crustacean family and a proper shell.

It may seem a far-fetched story but at its heart is a very real problem: hermit crabs really are using plastic pollution like bottles and pen caps as homes, a situation which starkly symbolizes the reality of the plastic crisis. SC Johnson have been bold in taking this shocking image and using it not as a dire warning but as a call to bolder action, making “Zuzu’s Journey” into a compelling narrative that’s also a positive and educational film.

This is exactly the kind of creative strategy we discuss in our recent The Greenprint report on advertising and sustainability. Brands need to take responsibility for outcomes, clearly point to what individual consumers can do to move the needle on a problem, and perhaps most of all present issues in a way that’s inspiring and positive. Doom doesn’t cause action, it prevents it.

Creating a character who symbolizes an issue, like Zuzu, is a way of bringing it to life and educating audiences without being didactic or dull. Our Test Your Ad Pro report shows clearly how much viewers understand the issues behind Zuzu’s journey and the need for better recycling rates from businesses. The crab captivates them and creates an emotional rollercoaster of surprise, sadness, fear and then a happy resolution. But their key associations are all around the issues.

Overall the ad scores 4.0-Stars, a strong score for an advocacy film, especially one with so much relevance to negative trends. It’s also an excellent score for a long ad – not many ads can pass the three-minute mark without losing their audience’s attention, but Zuzu manages it. And the high intensity of the emotion viewers feel translates into a strong Spike Rating too – this is an ad which is likely to prompt behavior as well as spark emotion.

Is there a future for SC Johnson’s adorable crab character beyond this initial ad? The film is the centerpiece of a much wider campaign including poster advertising, appearances at awards shows and charity events, and celebrity support from the likes of Orlando Bloom. But with this level of emotional effectiveness and engagement it’s clear that Zuzu is a potential wider fluent device for this and other campaigns. We might not have seen the last of the little crab and his unusual home.