Soul wins advertising for Bhopal Medical Appeal

Mar. 03, 2017

The Bhopal Medical Appeal, an NGO working to better the lives of thousands of people still living in the shadow of the world’s worst industrial accident, the Bhopal disaster, has chosen to partner with Soul on its advertising.

The Bhopal Medical Appeal (BMA) works on behalf of victims of the accident that took place in 1984 at a Union Carbide (now owned by Dow Chemical) pesticide factory in Bhopal, India.

Despite being the world’s worst ever industrial disaster, in which 8 -10,000 people died in a cloud of toxic gases, Bhopal has been largely forgotten about in the 32 years since. The catastrophic leak from the American-owned pesticide factory caused a further 150,000 to suffer chronic illness, disfigurement or disability. Cancers are at ten times the rate of unexposed parts of the city. The death toll today stands at 25,000, and counting.

Despite over three decades of continuous efforts by survivor organisations, Dow Chemical has yet to agree to a plan to adequately support victims, or clean up abandoned toxic wastes that continue to poison drinking water in Bhopal. Dow has also ignored multiple court summonses to answer a criminal case in India’s courts. Survivors allege that the US chemical giant has enjoyed the protection of successive American governments.

BMA wants Soul help to change the status quo and get the issue into the limelight and onto the political agenda.

Soul will create a digital and social media campaign with the aim of sparking a movement of people outraged by the lack of action taken to help the victims of this terrible disaster - with the hope that this will force those responsible into doing something and changing the story of Bhopal. The campaign will launch later this year.

Tim Edwards, managing trustee of the BMA, said:

“Soul immediately understood that Bhopal’s fate can only be changed by unprecedented public pressure . Soul’s inventive and ambitious approach gives us real hope of inspiring this.”

Shaun Moran, Creative Director at Soul said:

“The more you know about the Bhopal disaster, the more you want to help the people of Bhopal to finally get justice.”