Awareness comes in many forms, including news, advertising and person-to-person discussions. In Russia, one awareness campaign focused on forest pollution caused by human activities implemented a unique spin to facilitate conversation. 

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Two images: to the left, a front-facing person wearing green and black camo with trash woven into the design. To the right, a sideview of a person pulling the hood up on their camo jacket.

MayoFree, an independent creative team, led the drive to spread the word about waste accumulation in Russian forests. Worsened by pandemic lockdowns compelling families to spend more time outside, pollution in natural areas has become a major concern. 

Related: Bushwick bartender makes gorgeous necklaces from NYC’s trash

Two images: to the left, a close-up of a green camo jacket. To the right, a person with their back to the camera, wearing a camo jacket.

MayoFree, based out of Moscow since its 2019 launch, specializes in creative advertising, social projects and video-content production. Using these strengths, the team collaborated with non-profit eco-movement RosEco and Chiveskella, an ecо-activist fashion brand by upcycle-designer Nikolay Voznesensky, to produce Trash Camo. The project is an “ironic fashion collection” meant to highlight damage to the ecology of Russian forests. The collection includes jackets, shirts and pants in traditional camo patterns, overlaid with pieces of trash woven into the design. The team modeled the clothing in a fun video “inspired by Russian action films of the 2000s and kitsch content from YouTube hunters.”

Two images: to the left, two people stand next to each other wearing matching blue and white camo jackets. To the right, the same two people face left.

In the video, a group of young hunters don their Trash Camo and head out on a hunt, savagely spearing and netting litter from a forested area. The mighty hunters then display the results of their hunt (piles of cans, bottles and other debris) in various poses similar to those used by animal hunters. No words are spoken, except for three at the closing, but the faux intensity draws attention to the matter at hand — environmental pollution caused by humans.

Two images: to the left, a blue and white camo t-shirt. To the right, a green camo shirt.

The idea behind the campaign is to make the topic relevant by relying on a popular pattern in both the hunting and fashion world — camo. With that relevancy in the forefront, the campaign seeks to spread its media content in a humorous, yet informative way. In the end, the project’s goal is to raise money for forest clean-ups, so profits from the sales will be donated to environmental non-profit organizations.

+ MayoFree

Images via MayoFree