Liquid Death mocks plastic pollution with Whitney Cummings
In an over-the-top ad, the comedian plays a plastic surgeon who keeps beaches clean by plumping up her patients with plastic garbage.
The sad truth is, most of the plastic that gets thrown into recycle bins never ends up getting recycled (in fact, only 5% of plastic actually does, per a 2022 Greenpeace report).
At the same time, plastic continues to accumulate in our oceans, so much so that marine conservationists at the Plastic Soup Foundation predict that oceans will carry more plastic than fish by 2050.
To raise awareness about the plastic pollution crisis, Liquid Death, a water brand that packages its product in recyclable aluminum cans, released a satirical ad spot today starring comedian, actress and podcaster Whitney Cummings.
In the ad, Cummings plays the resident plastic surgeon at the Liquid Death Recycled Plastic Surgery Center. At this practice, Cummings has found her own way of keeping plastic waste out of oceans and beaches (spoiler: it’s by implanting plastic garbage into people’s bodies). Her patients show off the work they’ve had done while basking in the sun, making crinkling sounds as they move. The film was created in partnership with creative agency Party Land.
“Plastic recycling is really a myth. In fact, environmental economists say it’s actually better to just pitch all our plastic in the trash so it requires less transportation to reach landfills,” Andy Pearson, Liquid Death’s vice-president of creative Andy Pearson wrote in a LinkedIn post.
“So of course, since all this plastic isn’t actually recyclable, we want to pitch our own solution to the problem. It’s absurd and dark, but then again, so is the situation. If we can get people to laugh about it and teach them something along the way, maybe next time they have a choice between a single-use plastic bottle and an infinitely recyclable aluminum can, they’ll think about it.”
As part of the campaign, Liquid Death is also releasing a limited-edition ’Recycled Plastic Surgery Center’ branded crewneck, available exclusively on LiquidDeath.com for $52.
The effort represents a continuation of Liquid Death’s ongoing #DeathtoPlastic initiative, which donates a portion of sales to the Thirst Project, a non-profit that provides safe drinking water to at-risk communities as well as 5 Gyres, an organization that helps clean plastic garbage out of oceans.