Plastic Change billboards warn ‘these nuts may contain traces of plastic’

Danish NGO Plastic Change has launched an out-of-home campaign featuring close-up photographs of testicles to draw attention to microplastics in the human body.

The campaign arrives ahead of World Environment Day on 5 June, when brands typically lean on images of oceans, forests and wildlife. Plastic Change instead argues that people are as much a part of nature as any animal, and focuses on how modern life is affecting male genitals.

Titled ‘These Nuts May Contain Traces of Plastic’, the billboards and other sites across Denmark pair the images with a ‘May Contain’ warning, turning the familiar ‘may contain nuts’ food label on its head.

The campaign notes that the ‘may contain nuts’ label exists to flag ingredients that can be life-threatening for some people, while the effects of microplastics on health are less well known, despite media such as the recent Netflix documentary The Plastic Detox.

Developed with digital imagery studio We Are Eli and independent creative agency Worth Your While, the ads aim to highlight microplastics found in the body, including in testicles, penile tissue and semen. According to the campaign, the side effects of that unwanted ‘ingredient’ can include infertility, hormone disruption and lower sperm counts.

Preliminary findings from some research suggest men with microplastics in testicular tissue have sperm counts around half those of men without. Separate studies have indicated that microplastics suppress testosterone, and that sperm counts more generally have fallen by more than half over the past century.

The strategy rests on the insight that men are more likely to “disengage” from environmental messages. By framing the issue around male fertility, the campaigners hope to give that audience what is almost literally a kick in the nuts.