GS25's Lifeguard Snack shapes a chip bag into a throwable rescue buoy

Over 70% of South Korea is mountainous; deep valleys are popular summer spots but lack lifeguards and rescue gear, and drownings of children under nine keep rising. GS25, the retailer with the most stores near these areas, wanted to act.

Make the snack bag itself a rescue buoy — bright orange, grippable, rope-ready — so the thing people already carry to the water becomes lifesaving equipment.

Cheil designed chip bags in rescue-buoy shape and bright orange, with grips on both sides, a hole to thread a rope through, and cartoon-style rescue instructions printed on the back, paired with water-safety education content for children.

The snack reframed rescue equipment in the public mind — any floating object can be a lifeline. It won at MAD STARS 2025 and took a Bronze at the London International Awards 2025.

South Korea's mountain valleys are summer playgrounds, but many rural spots have no lifeguards, no rescue equipment and no safety infrastructure — and drownings of young children there rise every year. GS25, as the convenience chain with the most stores near these destinations, saw its own position in the problem.

With Cheil Worldwide, GS25 launched Lifeguard Snack in 2024: a snack package redesigned to double as water-rescue equipment. The bag takes the color and form of a lifeguard's rescue buoy — bright orange, with grips on both sides so it can be held with two hands and a hole for threading a rope.

Cartoon-like instructions on the back of the package show anyone how to use it in an emergency, and the campaign carried educational content teaching children water safety. The deeper message: people assume rescue requires special equipment, when anything that floats can save a life.

The work was recognized across Asia's award circuit, winning at MAD STARS 2025 in Busan and a Bronze at the London International Awards 2025.

A convenience store's real estate near danger zones made the intervention physically possible.

Borrowing the rescue buoy's visual language makes the function instantly legible.

It shifts public perception: flotation, not equipment, is the lifesaving principle.

If people won't carry safety gear, hide the safety gear inside something they already carry.

Lifeguard Snack continued collecting international recognition through 2025, including at MAD STARS and the London International Awards, and was featured in Cheil Worldwide's 2024 sustainability report as a flagship social-safety project.