The Sea Speaks Out in McGann\Zhang's Heal The Bay Campaign

McGann/Zhang has launched a new campaign for Heal The Bay (HTB), an LA area non-profit organization whose mission is to protect the bay through advocacy and community engagement. The campaign, which coincides with their 30th anniversary, breaks this week and then over the course of the rest of July and August. The work centers on the message that water is the lifeblood of their region, and therefore the ocean is its heart. And similar to how people feel about their own hearts, they often take for granted that the ocean will be there. In a bid to reawaken people’s connection to nature and each other, HTB created a compelling digital membership campaign, which will run online and be shared through HTB’s extensive social media footprint.

The campaign takes a two-tiered, “high” and “low” approach. The “high” approach, dubbed “Soul,” marries spoken-word poetry that evokes the soul of the sea with highly saturated, hypnotic, slow-motion images of the Bay. The “low” uses prop-humor and live action animation to engage audiences, with anthropomorphized sea animals talking about man’s impact on their home. A slew of gorgeous ocean-related “Soul” cinemagraphs allures viewers like the open sea, while the off-kilter “Critters” cinemagraphs demand attention amid users’ crowded feeds.