Specially-developed soil sustains live plants in bus stop ad campaign

UK-based eco media agency CURB has helped Clear Channel to encase living flowers inside advertising shelters in a campaign for allergy relief brand Piri.

UK-based eco media agency CURB has already demonstrated an innovative use of living organisms as a form of advertising with its DesignGrass, which requires neither soil nor watering to provide a natural way of communicating with a wide audience. Now involved in a new campaign, the company has helped Clear Channel to encase living flowers inside advertising shelters in a campaign for allergy relief brand Piri. Between 14 May and 27 May, twelve bus stops and ad stands across the UK – in cities such as Cardiff, Liverpool, Birmingham and London – had the plants housed inside bespoke units installed in place of those usually containing print media. Collaborating with pharmaceutical producer GlaxoSmithKline and media marketing firms MediaCom and Kinetic, Clear Channel filled the spaces with a variety of flowers and a specially-developed soil that is able to hold water for long periods of time, in order to advertise Piri’s range of anti-hayfever tablets. Fans inside the small spaces maintained temperature and humidity to allow the plants to survive throughout the two-week period. The idea behind the campaign was that the cases provided a barrier between the viewer and the live flowers, paralleling the way Piri’s products help stop pollen affecting hayfever sufferers. Just like Whirligro and Agricell, previously featured on Springwise, the technology implemented in this campaign could be developed to allow a more permanent way of growing plants with limited space and natural soil. Governments around the world – could this technique be used to boost the amount of public greenery in urban spaces?