Campaign: “Temu is on mute”

The Greenpeace Hong Kong office reached out to us with a major challenge: urging Temu to start offsetting its carbon footprint. Temu is currently Alibaba’s main Chinese competitor in the global online shopping market. Thanks to its aggressive pricing and shipping strategy, it quickly gained ground in European markets.

What did we do?
 We launched a campaign across the main European countries where Temu was widely used. Since heavy users tend to be younger audiences, the campaign adopted a fun tone that didn’t shame consumers for using the platform — instead, it encouraged them to demand that this new giant be more environmentally friendly.

Concept
 “Temu is on mute” was the central concept we used to highlight the company’s silence and lack of response regarding calls to disclose the carbon footprint of each shipment it sends worldwide.
 “Temu” and “mute” are palindromes, which provided an interesting conceptual and visual element to play with.

We started with static ads on Meta platforms, and ultimately created a video spot simulating a press conference. In the video, Temu’s spokesperson appeared, ready to reveal the company’s carbon footprint. Several journalists eagerly awaited her announcement. But just as she began to speak, something all too familiar from Zoom or Meet meetings happened: her microphone was off.

The muted mic icon appeared on screen, and someone said, “Sorry, Temu is on mute.”

The final message was a call to action, inviting the public to tell Temu to stop staying silent — and to finally disclose the carbon footprint of every one of its shipments.