In Romania, only 20% of the primary forests are protected by law. The remaining forests are savagely taken down, mostly illegally, leaving us with a barren land and a serious problem, which we will have to answer for in front of generations to come. Our client, Greenpeace Romania, has been struggling for years to protect the flora and fauna in these forests. Together we wanted to create awareness about the vital importance of our primary forests and let people know they can do something to protect it: urge the authorities to take action. We thought that the best way to get people to care more about the forest was to bring the forests closer to them. So we recorded the blissful sounds of the forests and used them to create an unforgettable experience for our public.
We created Uncut (English version here) – the first music album launched by the primary forests of Romania, featuring a collaboration with a top local alternative band. The album can be streamed online for free on uncut.ro, and can downloaded on Bandcamp, on a pay-what-you-want basis, all money going to Greenpeace Romania.
The project launched with a video from Coma, one of Romania’s most loved bands. They were offered sound recordings from the primary forests, which they mixed into one of their hit songs, fittingly called ”The Most Beautiful Place on Earth”. The video now reached the 1M view count, all organic.
This version of the song also got a custom video, filmed in one of Romania’s forests. To launch the campaign and call for support, we premiered the video in the opening of the band’s concert in a club in Bucharest. Over the next months, other top alternative bands joined in to support the forest with their music. The Pixels launched their video in march and Moonlight Breakfast premiered theirs in June, at Pelicam International Environmental Film Festival.
As an effort to increase awareness, we also branded central bus stations across Bucharest, allowing people to listen to the forests… while waiting for the bus. The bus stations were also equipped with scent diffusers, to bring the fresh scent of the forest into the urban environment. We installed proximity beacons that sent notifications to nearby devices inviting passersby to check uncut.ro.
