What it had to solve
An energy-conservation demonstration for the Energy Upgrade California initiative, staged on a Los Angeles Interstate 405 billboard on top of an existing advertiser's message.
How it works
Light Tape — a special tape thinner than a credit card whose entire surface is a light source — sits behind the billboard vinyl, completely solar-powered. When the site's usual lights were switched off for the night, the regular McDonald's chicken-menu ad transformed: 'This was an ad for McDonald's. Thanks to their partnership, it's now an ad that saves energy,' with both logos and the #BetterOff Earth Day hashtag. A transformation video documented the billboard in action.
What it did
The agency framed energy-free advertising as replicable across mediums — most media placements consume energy — and it was the first work created by ECD Ben Wolan since joining DDB San Francisco.
Background
For Earth Day 2018, Energy Upgrade California and DDB San Francisco took over a billboard on Los Angeles' Interstate 405 to demonstrate that together Californians are #BetterOff. They arranged for the billboard's usual lights to be turned off for a night, creating an alternative ad supporting the energy-saving initiative on top of the existing advertiser's message — without using electric power.
The transformation relied on Light Tape, a material thinner than a credit card that sits behind the vinyl, its entire surface a light source, and runs completely on solar power. When night fell and the power went off, the tape illuminated through the vinyl, taking over the site. The regular ad was for McDonald's chicken menu items; at night the text changed to: 'This was an ad for McDonald's. Thanks to their partnership, it's now an ad that saves energy,' alongside the McDonald's and Energy Upgrade California logos and the #BetterOff hashtag.
Executive creative director Ben Wolan — for whom this was the first work created since joining DDB San Francisco — said the collaborative effort showed energy-efficient, energy-free advertising can be recreated and used more widely: 'Most media placements consume energy and we're always looking for ways to reduce energy consumption while still making the most of the media space.'
Why it lands
The demonstration is the message: an energy campaign that literally goes off-grid proves its point instead of asserting it.
Borrowing a live commercial placement — with the advertiser's consent credited on the ad itself — turns inventory into an event.
Solar-powered Light Tape made the swap technically real, not a mock-up, so the billboard kept working all night with zero grid power.
What you can take
A medium's biggest cost can become the creative itself: the electricity that lights an outdoor site is the one prop an energy message can visibly switch off.
Since then
The billboard ran its transformation for an Earth Day 2018 night on Interstate 405, documented in a transformation video; DDB positioned the mechanic as one other mediums could adopt.
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