Tiger Beer creates Air Ink – ink made from air pollution.
By Johny Ho on Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Air pollution in Asia is at an all-time high. Cars, factories, and kiln burners pump out endless black columns of smoke into the atmosphere, the resulting smog marking its acrid presence on buildings and encircling city skylines in a dark, oppressive cloud.
In a stunt created by Marcel Sydney in partnership with MIT’s Graviky Labs, for Hong Kong’s Tiger Beer, turned air pollution into ink.
To create Air-Ink, unique devices were developed to capture soot from vehicles’ exhausts. These were fitted to trucks, ferries, chimneys and even cranes around Hong Kong and India. The captured pollutants were then purified and turned into safe, reliable ink for everyday use.
Overall, 150 litres of Air-Ink has been produced, approximating to 2500 hours worth of diesel car emissions.; an innovative range of pens, markers and spray cans made from air pollution.
A range of Air-Ink products were given to emerging Asian street artists such as Bao Ho, Caratoes, Xeme and Christopher H, who used them to create spectacular murals and advertising on the streets of Hong Kong.
“The streets are not only a great place to drink Tiger, they’re also the place where creativity, ideas and passion are born. By using our entrepreneurial spirit to repurpose pollution into ink – the lifeblood of creativity – we’re giving creative people the tools to enhance their streets, and empowering inventors like Anirudh to take small but impactful actions against air pollution“, says Mie-Leng Wong, director of international brands, Tiger Beer, Heineken Asia Pacific: .
Sharma, founder, Gravity and former T35 MIT Innovator of the Year, says “It’s the perfect partnership between technology, art and the streets. It could only be achieved through the collaborative efforts of my team, the artists and a brave brand like Tiger Beer. I’m very proud of what we’ve created.”
The initiative is part of Tiger Beer’s mission to inspire people to ‘uncage the Tiger inside’ to take action for what they are passionate about. Tiger plans to launch more Air-Ink initiatives in other markets across Asia in 2017.
Currently, Air-Ink is not commercially available but Tiger is working with Gravity Labs to manufacture more for future products. There’s an official website for the initiative: http://www.air-ink.com/
A video from the stunt can be viewed below:
Source: Adnews, Campaign Brief and Branding Magazine
Involved Agency: Marcel Sydney