MTh Director Mark Kudsi used epic visuals, experienced on a human scale, to tell a simple, optimistic story about the immense impact Glad has made in our lives through reducing the amount of plastic in Glad trash bags.  The new eco-friendly campaign from DDB SF launched nationally October 12.

Glad’s new trash bags, while stronger, use 6.5% less plastic, and DDB sought to illustrate the story visually in a way that brought the impact home to consumers.  “Numbers and statistics can be boring,” said Kudsi. “It’s much easier to visualize them. But without proper context, spectacular visuals can get lost too. So we set out to show what that 6.5% means; what it actually looks like to you and I.”

In “Manhattan,” Kudsi poses, “What if we could take enough plastic to cover all of Manhattan out of landfills every year?”  Viewers see a city sky encased in a billowing, cloud-like material that filters and mutes the sun, and it becomes clear that this is plastic. Though the city is sheathed and sealed, its citizens don’t seem to notice. Once the bags begin to tear apart and disappear, the sun pours through in shafts, and people respond, stepping up the enjoyment in their lives.

To create cinematic cityscapes grounded in reality, Kudsi captured as much as possible in camera, having visual effects company Mirada create CG only to achieve the impossible.  In “Manhattan” a small practical rig of plastic bags enabled the team to get close, textural in-camera shots of light pouring through plastic, which also provided a reference for look and wind movements to match in 3D.