A giant Chupps Footwear sandal is biodegrading in a billboard in Mumbai. The billboard is biodegrading too. And the spectacle of sustainability by new creative agency, INTO Creative India, is promoting an innovation by India’s homegrown open-footwear brand – footwear that biodegrades in just 24 months once discarded in a landfill environment. The billboard makes a visible statement about invisible waste.
It took four days to mount the new 6 metre x 3 metre billboard in Bandra, Mumbai. It is made entirely of biodegradable materials, set in a massive bamboo structure that replaces the usual iron and tin structures, and the giant sandal and backdrop are made from a mixture of mud, clay, cow dunk, hay, and sawdust. The headline is written with fresh limestone instead of regular white paint. The natural materials used to make this billboard will disintegrate and collapse over time and with rain, leaving behind only the bamboo skeleton.
Santosh Padhi (Paddy), founder & chief creative officer, INTO Creative, stated, “To bring the biodegradability brief to life, we decided to stay true to the idea by creating a billboard that directly reflects the brand’s offering, one built entirely from biodegradable material. While metro cities today are dominated by digital and tech-led billboards, we chose to stay earthy and grounded, creating something so simple yet so striking that it communicated the brand message at first glance. Setting up this billboard using only organic materials was a huge challenge, but thanks to our execution team, we managed to pull it off beautifully. As for the timing of it, during this festive season we subtly wanted to remind consumers to be kind to the planet.”
Yashesh Mukhi, founder of Chupps, added, “The future of fashion won’t be defined by how long it lasts, but by how gently it leaves. Our products are engineered with love, for both our customers and the planet. With this campaign, we want to start a conversation about endings – of products, of campaigns, and of waste. Paddy and the team cracked an imaginative way to bring this to life, all while keeping the communication simple and engaging.”
