AlmapBBDO and O Boticário, beauty brand and leading recycler in Brazil, have created a fragrance, Extinto. It’s not unusual for a beauty brand to create a fragrance but this one has a special message. The fragrance recreates the scent of Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro before it was polluted and calls for better waste management and environmental preservation. The initiative, that underscores the urgency of the debate around threatened natural reserves will continue on to another four continents.
According to the UN, every year, over 2 billion tons of waste are generated across the world*; and according to the Brazilian Association of Public Sanitation and Special Waste (ABRELPE)**, Brazil recycles just 4% of the trash it produces every day. That state of affairs, plus decades of work by Boticário, was the start point for the brand to develop Project Extinto, which is designed to warn people about the importance of preserving the environment and proper solid waste management.
Created by AlmapBBDO, the initiative is supported by the Boticário Group Foundation for Nature Protection (FGB). Its first stage involved the release of a brand-new fragrance: a reconstruction of the original, unpolluted smell of Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay, the second largest on the Brazilian coast, stretching across 380 square kilometres, which has 98 tons of waste dumped into it every day, according to ABRELPE.
Extinto is the first in a limited run of products which will not be for sale, and which were developed as an urgent call to action to prevent pollution and incorrect waste management from degrading natural reserves. In Brazil today, just 1.1 million of the 27.7 million tons of recyclable waste produced on a daily basis are properly disposed of – coming in far below countries such as Chile, Argentina, and Turkey.
The Extinto Project will now continue on to four more continents, warning the world about the scents that may cease to exist if we don’t start improving our waste management. Over the months to come, Boticário will release fragrances inspired by the scents of other landscapes across the world which are currently threatened by pollution: Calabria, in Europe; the island of Madagascar, in Africa; New Delhi, in Asia; and East Arnhem, in Oceania.
“Waste management is a global concern. And that’s why we’re keen to get the conversation going internationally, working to make sure that our urgent message, which stems from Boticário’s genuine concern to ensure that natural scents are never driven to extinction, can be spread across the globe,” says Marcela de Masi, executive director of Branding and Communications at the Boticário Group.
AlmapBBDO also spearheaded the creation of the video manifesto for Extinto, featuring real, shocking footage of Guanabara Bay.
The agency also headed up the design and concept behind the exclusive bottles, which mimic landmarks around the world, among them Guanabara Bay. The glass was sculpted into the silhouettes of landscapes by Brazilian artist, Elvira Schuartz.
To broaden the initiative’s impact and get out the word about the launch, Boticário brought Brazilian dance music star, Alok, on board, as an artist engaged in social and environmental causes through the Instituto Alok, to become a part of the project and help humanise the discussion even further.
“This project isn’t just about getting people to engage with environmental causes, but, above all, about showing the real work that Boticário has put into conserving and helping to restore the environment,” explains AlmapBBDO CCO, Marco Giannelli.
To create the fragrance without extracting any raw materials from the bay itself, the brand’s perfumers traveled to the area around Guanabara Bay and used headspace technology to capture samples of aromatic molecules from the environment. Based on a detailed analysis, the team of experts was able to identify the scents present in the better conserved parts of the region and recreate those natural accords using synthetic materials.
The research and development process that produced the fragrance, with notes that evoke the bay’s cool waters and the vibrant green of the forests surrounding it, took around six months. The product is vegan, made up of 93% natural, traceable, organic, circular-chain ingredients, as well as a small percentage of synthetic elements.
Just over a hundred units of each version of Extinto was produced. All were sent to prominent influencers. In addition to the campaign and the limited-edition fragrances, Boticário launched a project to identify ideas and solutions to help mitigate the problem of improper waste disposal in Guanabara Bay, and has increased its investment in messaging and initiatives to dialogue with consumers about recycling, packaging reuse, and measures that can help reduce the extraction of raw and natural materials.
Find out more here: https://www.boticario.com.br/dicas-de-beleza/extinto/
*Sources for data on solid waste and recycling: ONU News | Abrelpe e Jornal Nacional. **Kantar, LinkQ On-line, May 2022.
Credits
Client: O Boticário
Client Team: Renata Gomide, Marcela De Masi, Bruna Buas Pazos, Eduardo Rebola, Maria Augusta Silveira, Duane Kurten
Agency: AlmapBBDO
President & CEO: Filipe Bartholomeu
CCOs: Luiz Sanches & Pernil
Energy BBDO CCO: Josh Gross
Executive Creative Directors: Rafael Gil & Rodrigo Almeida
Creatives: Felipe Cirino, Francis Alan, Alexandre Freire, Gustavo Tasselli, Udo Döhler, Vitória Satt, Iron Brito, Bruno Bacci,Gabriel Barrea & Zé Baldin.
Video Production: Diego Villas Boas, Juliana Henriques, Aline Silva
Account Management: Camilla Massari, Andressa Duo, Bruna Defelippe, Amanda Lopes Moutinho, Pedro Miranda
Planning: Rita Almeida and Daniela Ferrari
Media: Rafaela Alves, Luana Gallizzi, Suellen Kiss, Vitória Soares, Camila Lopes, Patrick Novais and Paula Kurihara.
Art Buyers: Tereza Setti & Flávia Padrão
Photographer: Wendy Andrade
Image Production: Paranoid
Director: Patryck Rhuan
Executive Producers: Marcel Weckx & Luiz Armesto
DoP: Daniel Primo
Liaisons: Fernanda Sousa and Karina Vallesi
Coordination Assistants: Fernanda Hernandez, Camila Aureliano & Dulce Fernandes
Production Director: Rodolfo Bittencourt
Post Coordinator: Paula Solano
Editor: Duda Jiu
Colour Grading: Patryck Rhuan
Post-production: Casinha VFX
Post-producer: David Cazeli
Sound Production: Cabaret
Music Production: Guile Oliveira
Composer: André Henrique
Mixing: Gab Scatolin
Post-Production: Guile Oliveira, Letícia Medeiros & Lucas Comparato
Liaisons: Ingrid Lopes & Fernanda Crespo
Coordinators: Verusca Garcia, Chandra Lima, Mavi Capelasso & Débora Mell
