Aimed at promoting the creative reuse of plastic bottles, Coca-Cola has launched a project to give away caps that convert discarded drink containers to fun and practical alternative functions.

These so-called Second Lives adapters can turn waste vessels into everything from bubble blowers and squirt guns to night lights, shampoo dispensers, pencil sharpeners, paintbrushes and water-filled weights.

The plan, hatched by Ogilvy & Mather China, is to distribute these caps for free in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, with the company encouraging people to take off the Coke labels to avoid confusion. The larger idea is to inspire alternative uses for old plastic bottles, getting people to think outside of the box about what is disposable and what could, in fact, have some sort of second life waiting within it.

“We are always looking for better solutions to reduce the use of plastic and increase recycling around the world,” said Leonardo O’Grady, ASEAN Director Integrated Marketing Communications, Coca-Cola. “The variety of our ‘2nd Lives’ caps shows that there are many creative ways to re-use plastic simply and practically, and also supports our global sustainability program.” 

The project was piloted in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in March, with an expected 40,000 bottle caps to be gifted throughout the country this year. The campaign is set to launch in Thailand and Indonesia at a later date. Still, it is worth wondering whether adding more plastic to the world is worthwhile. As neat as some of these designs are, will they ultimately reduce waste or contribute to it?

Taking over a single bus shelter on New Oxford Street, guerrilla advertisers threw everything they could think of at commuters, including (but not limited to) flying space aliens, underground squid monsters and giant city-crushing robots.

The campaign, created for Pepsi Max, takes a real-time projected display and adds (almost) impossible scenarios seamlessly to convince viewers of their authenticity.

From its creators: “Watch their reactions as unbelievable scenarios unfold before their very eyes; from a giant robot crashing through the street to a passer by being abducted by flying saucers.” With over 5,000,000 views and counting, it is safe to say that Pepsi can clearly count this one as a success.

Mutating works of public advertising with corrosive acid, this cunning urban interventionist hijacks posters from bus stops and subway stations, then adds his own message into the mix.

Vermibus takes posters then employs solvents to remake each surface in his studio, dissolving inks and colors already there and reusing materials from each de facto ‘canvass’ to make something new.

He then puts his transformed works back where he found the original or, in many cases, an entirely different site, city or even country, blending them back into the urban environment.

Having taken them off the streets, Vermibus brushes the idealized figures, slowly morphing them into surrealist versions of their former selves. He has repeated this unusual artistic process in various major cities, including and beyond his home town of Berlin.

Sometimes the commentary is clear – a model made intentionally skeletal, for instance – while others evolve (or devolve) into abstractions and parodies that seem almost inhuman.

The three fascinating short films embedded throughout this article (above and below) show his process, various examples of his work around Europe and his organization of and participation in the No-Ad Project. “Using a dubious inter-rail ticket, Vermibus set out with a set of 90 keys and his pallet of solvents to physically and temporally hijack the Western Worlds of advertisements in the name of fine art.”

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Smear Campaign Guerrilla Artist Remixes Adverts With Acid

Facade or fantasm, this series of images presents an alluring picture of the layers – perhaps even literal  levels – of  history that lies beneath aged and famous buildings.

Blending physical fact and historical fantasy, these advertisements (for titled “Discover the Full Story”) extend three archetypal works of Soviet architecture to new subterranean depths. They seem a fitting set to promote the Shchusev State Museum of Architecture in Moscow, Russia.

The Kremlin, with its recognizably colorful onion towers, reveals even more (and larger) turrets below – what is on the surface turns out to be just the uppermost peaks. Neo-Classical and Gothic Revival play their parts as well, turning what looks like an old Greek tempt into the top of an edifice, and a stately structure into a skyscraper.

And for those who enjoy process as much as product, it is interesting to see the stages these illustrations went through to get to their final form – sketched figures and pillars, hand-drafted architectural elements, and then finishing touches.