Death of a palm
Of the 50 most polluted European Union cities, 36 are in Poland. On World Environment Day, Syrena Communications set out to shock the country into facing this crisis.
Towering over one of Warsaw’s central squares is a popular art piece, a giant artificial palm tree created by the artist Joanna Rajkowska.
This symbol of Warsaw has been in position since 2002, but on World Environment Day its meaning was changed, and it became a haunting environmental message.
The artificial tree became a real palm, but a withered, dying one.
We asked Syrena ECD, Jaroslaw Wiewiórski, to tell us how the story unfolded. “When we got the brief for World Environment Day from our client UNEP/ GRID- Warsaw, we wanted our work to enter the public space. Although so many of Europe’s most polluted cities are in Poland, our coal-loving government keeps spreading soothing messages that are often openly climate sceptic. We wanted to counteract this while provoking a public debate.
“We looked at a couple of popular sites and the plastic Warsaw Palm was ideal for us. It’s famous here in Poland and one of the symbols of the city, controversial for some but beloved by many. Whatever they felt about it, however, any change would be quickly noticed. So we decided to ‘hack’ the city’s modern art symbol.
“Our idea was to replace the plastic palm tree with a real one which was dying’’
Jaroslaw Wiewiórski
“Initially, we were hoping to replace the whole tree, but that was impossible without leaving a heavy carbon footprint. So we decided to replace just the leaves.
“We picked our leaves from a farm in the Languedoc and on the night before World Environment Day we worked secretly with the artist and technicians from the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw to replace the plastic leaves with dying real ones.”
When Warsaw woke up to this dramatic representation of Poland’s damaged environment, the impact was immediate. The campaign was broadcast by 177 major titles in Poland and over 300 globally. It had a total reach of 35m in Poland alone, and Syrena collected 12,000 declarations of support on the first day of the action.
More importantly, the Minister of the Environment met the client to discuss immediate steps for the improving air quality in Poland. And a nationwide discussion on the environment has become a reality.
The initiative won Syrena a trophy in the popular Ambient and Experiential category at the Cresta Awards 2020. Jaroslaw told us just how important winning awards is for agencies in his region: “In Central Eastern Europe, start-ups like ours need awards to prove their high creative standards to clients. And for us here Cresta is not only one of the world’s most prestigious creative awards, but the award known for its focus on creativity as a single criteria, with a highly objective judging process.
“This is very important for independent agencies who compete against global networks in Poland. We cannot afford lavish case studies, multiple entries and lobbying through international contacts, thus we need a competition which lets the work speak for itself.”
Click here to see Syrena’s original winning entry video.
