Calidda: advert-body-3 by McCann Lima

McCann Lima worked with Peruvian gas company Calidda to produce ‘Lima Is Talking,’ an innovative project that collected actual air pollution to communicate the risks of automobile pollution and promote the benefits of natural gas in Lima, Peru, one of Latin America's most polluted cities.

The campaign wrote a message in pollution to local residents about how difficult it has become for it to breathe. The innovation came from a device attached to a prominent billboard location in one of Lima’s busiest traffic locations, which collected CO2 pollution from the atmosphere. The unit stored the CO2 gas, then processed it into a powder. In the transformation process from gas to powder, the powder acted as an ink and was manipulated to slowly write a message on the billboard, which began as a blank canvas.

After 15 days, the billboard broadcast the final message: “It takes me a lot to breathe.”