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Pixar-style animation highlights the plight of the ocean

Our oceans are in trouble. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Sea Stars website, only 2.8 per cent of the sea is now protected. With the goal of increasing that figure to 10 per cent by 2020, the leading organisation in wildlife conservation is enlisting help from the nature lovers all over the globe with this charming new Sea Stars campaign.

Heading the project is this charming, short animation, created by Not To Scale directors Pierre Ducos and Bertrand Bey of Pierre + Bertrand. Written by the team at Ogilvy Amsterdam, the creative duo were brought on board to bring the script to life. "The brief from Ogilvy came with a strong script," says Bey. "The WWF wanted to speak of reef destruction, plastic waste and industrial fishing - telling the story in a clever and penetrable way."

The WWF is enlisting the help of nature lovers around the globe with its charming new Sea Stars campaign

Mixed mediums

Clear on their requirements, the creative duo decided on a mix of 2D and 3D elements throughout, a major reason being to highlight the contrast between the underwater and human worlds.

"We wanted to make the viewers identify and sympathise with our underwater world," Bey explains. "We had to make very expressive fish with human facial expressions to humanise them as much as possible and keeping them fun. Then we had to make a dark and cold human world to create a contrast with the first part, so the viewers are pulled out from a quiet and funny place into a violent world."

The Sea Stars campaign features a lush, underwater 3D world

This animation works on every level. Not only is it beautifully executed, it also highlights the devastating effects activities like overfishing, pollution and climate change are having on life below sea level on a sincere and emotional level. Bey says: "We really worked on the script and previs to simplify all the ideas and make them fit into a doable two-minute film that maintains its clear and strong message.

For more information on the campaign and details on how to become a star of the sea, visit the dedicated WWF Sea Stars website.

Have you seen any inspirational advertising campaigns recently? Let us know in the comments.

Kerrie Hughes is editor of Creative Bloq. Kerrie was staff writer for 3D World magazine before joining the original Creative Bloq team in 2012. Since then she's written regularly for other publications, including ImagineFX, 3D World and Computer Arts magazines.