Breathing life back
into the dead sea
The Dead Sea
The Problem
All marine life in Denmark’s seas is collapsing due to oxygen depletion.
Shakespeare was right. Something is rotten in Denmark. The sea. Fish and plants suffocate from oxygen depletion, a mass death taking place just below the surface. In the autumn 2023, a new report concluded that Denmark’s seas had the worst level of oxygen depletion in 20 years. It gained much attention, but political action never followed. Perhaps because the crisis is complex, too difficult to understand and therefore easier to ignore? Attention died out. Dead water.
We needed to bring the crisis to the surface again. So the Danes – public, press, and politicians – could see it, feel it, and act upon it.
We had an opportunity. See, the government was to discuss climate measures with the agriculture industry in the first half of 2024, as part of the “Den Grønne Trepart”. However, for reasons we can only speculate, their agenda didn’t include addressing oxygen depletion or nitrogen emissions from agriculture, by far the largest contributor to the crisis. We needed to change that! If we could make the issue emotionally relevant, make people care, and make the press cover it again, having long moved on, then, perhaps, we might have a chance to drive political action. These thoughts shaped the strategy.
May you rest in peace
Solution
A funeral for our dead friend, Vejle Fjord
The centerpiece of our campaign was a funeral event for Vejle Fjord, our beloved friend who suffocated from prolonged oxygen depletion. It offered a compelling scoop for the press and helped turn the complex crisis into an emotional issue that everyone could understand, relate to, and engage with.
Funeral rituals were transformed into campaign elements, replacing complex data with a love for nature. From a death notice to a gravestone, and literally everything in between. It created a simple language in both words and images, allowing everyone to talk about and take ownership of the issue in their own way.
The campaign launched with the death notice in the national newspaper Politiken and regional media, inviting all Danes to the funeral. Then came the obituary by renowned Danish author Carsten Jensen, along with several opinion pieces and press interviews to spark new discussions in the debate.
On a sunny day in early April, we buried a piece of Denmark's beloved nature. It was a funeral like any other, except for one unusual detail –the deceased: 800 liters of dead water from Vejle Fjord. Resting in a specially designed glass coffin, it allowed attendees to see the dead water with their own eyes. And making for both beautiful and provocative press images.
Opinions and words from a priest, local “relatives”, climate activists, and politicians from different parties provided multiple news hooks and fresh angles to discuss oxygen depletion anew.
The Dead Sea
Results
May you breath again
The results were uplifting and has reignited hope in times where oxygen depletion is still destroying the inner Danish waters.
- 148.484.569 reach in Danish press coverage, equivalent of
- hitting every single Danish person with our message more than 25 times
- 314% increased press coverage about “oxygen depletion”
- More than 550 press articles about the campaign (in Denmark alone)
- 40M DKK in earned press value (from Danish media coverage)
- 39M DKK dedicated to urgently restore Vejle Fjord
- 40B DKK and new regulation to restore Denmark’s sea life
