Sea Shepherd "The White Tide" by Brand Station

When it comes to ocean pollution, many people think of plastic products, those plastic bags, straws, plastic cups and invisible microplastic particles floating in the ocean. But whether you believe it or not, the small cigarette filter has become the first pollutant in the ocean, but the cigarette filter has escaped most of the supervision and directly flowed into the sea.

Strictly speaking, cigarette filters are actually a kind of plastic products. The vast majority of cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate, which may take 10 years or more to disintegrate. Cigarette filters thrown on the street will rush into the ocean through sewage pipes, streams and rivers, and decompose into tiny plastic particles easily absorbed by wild animals. According to research, a cigarette butt can contaminate up to 500 liters of water.

We often see in public welfare advertisements that a cigarette butt that has not been extinguished can cause a raging fire; a burning cigarette will also make people suffer from second-hand smoke, but we have never thought of the discarded cigarette filter. It turned out to be a great weapon for harming nature.

On World Oceans Day, Sea Shepherd creates a yellow and white tide to denounce the billions of cigarettes polluting the oceans.

A single cigarette butt can pollute up to 500 liters of water. Cigarette butts pollute the ocean even more than straws and plastic bags do. Every year, billions of them end up in the ocean, carried away by the wind, the rain, in rivers or in pipes, after having been carelessly thrown in the streets.

The toxic chemical components they are made of contribute to the ocean’s acidification and are deadly to the marine animals who eat them.

On World Oceans Day, it is urgent to raise awareness on this serious matter.

"The White Tide" is the name of Sea Shepherd’s campaign, which aims to denounce how cigarette butts are polluting and killing the oceans and their wildlife.

Advertising Agency: Brand Station, France
Creative Director: Damien Guiol, Samy Benama, Loic Chauveau
Art Director: Damien Guiol, Samy Benama
Copywriter: Damien Guiol, Samy Benama, Djavid Karmaly
Photographer: Salamagica
Cgi Artist: Salamagica
Agent: Watch Out