Costa: advert-body-3 by McGarrah Jessee

Commonly known as threatening creatures, sharks are the lifeblood of our oceans. A new campaign for Costa reveals the intrinsic importance of the species to our ecosystem through the most unlikely champions: three people who were attacked by sharks. Edited by Sai Selvarajan for agency McGarrah Jessee and Rabbit Food Studios, the campaign introduces the fascinating stories of Mike Coots, Paul de Gelder, and Lisa Mondy who turned adversity into advocacy.

Anchoring the campaign is Costa’s partnership with OCEARCH, a group of explorers and scientists dedicated to generating previously unattainable data on the movement, biology and health of sharks. The information being collected is helping protect these predators at the top of the marine food chain. Ultimately, the number of sharks killed by long-lining, illegal fishing and the shark finning trade exceeds attacks by millions. And as go the sharks, so go our oceans.

For editor Selvarajan, the goal was to strike a balance with the intimate stories and the global message, from striking footage filmed in Hawaii’s fabled surf mecca, the North Shore. “Stories inside stories,” describes Selvarajan, who reveres the subject’s dedication to saving the misunderstood creatures, despite having their life-changing encounters.