Creative Corner: UNICEF's classroom greenhouse, Ring of LiFe and couples chemistry
As we are welcomed into December by a flurry of more festive creative offerings, I’ve taken a step to the side, as this week’s picks orbit ecology, embodiment and emotional connection; three campaigns that swap spectacle for something far more resonant.
UNICEF turns a classroom into a climate warning
UNICEF’s immersive installation offers up the chance to feel how extreme heat waves are threatening children’s access to learning, with a reimagined greenhouse-turned-classroom in Brasília’s Esplanada dos Ministérios- Brazil’s federal government district. The 'Unlikely Greenhouse' transforms a classroom into a sweltering 38-degree hothouse to simulate the learning conditions of many children globally impacted by sweltering heatwaves. Stepping inside makes one thing painfully clear: learning becomes nearly impossible when you can barely breathe.
It’s a clever way to make the scale of the crisis hit somewhere more urgent than the brain: the skin. In 2024 alone, UNICEF reported that 242 million students had their schooling disrupted by climate-related events, with heatwaves affecting 118 million in April. Those numbers can feel abstract on a page; less so when you’re sweating over a school desk.
Clever that a place meant to nurture growth now feels oppressive, a quiet yet unmistakable metaphor for the way climate change is squeezing childhood itself. What I love is that those same plants, symbols of the natural world, subtly underscore what’s at stake: a sobering reminder that the world children inherit is alive and fragile.
Ring of LiFe: jewellery mined from the body and the Earth
Jewellery brand Mined in Sweden’s 'Ring of LiFe' is part art piece, part provocation: a ring forged from fossil-free Swedish iron and iron derived from menstrual blood, and a sort of experiment that turns an old process on its head. The brand is known for equal parts craft, commentary, and conversation starters- and with its sustainable, ethically sourced materials, the Ring of LiFe sits firmly in that wheelhouse.
For centuries we’ve mined iron from the Earth, but now this ring asks us to consider the iron we’ve been carrying around all along in the bodies of those who menstruate. Merge the two, and suddenly you’ve got a piece of jewellery that’s equal parts symbolic and talk piece.
Far from a gimmicky stunt, some real painstaking work went into making this happen. The menstrual iron was extracted by Professor Jonas Bergquist at Uppsala University, then combined with fossil-free Swedish iron sponge from LKAB and refined into steel by Swerim. A Swedish jewellery designer shaped the material into a ring inspired by geological textures, mineral layers, and the natural cycles of the body.
It nudges cultural assumptions along the way, as menstruation becomes material, biology becomes art, and a ring turns into a clever little statement about the overlooked connections between people and the planet.
Skyn tests whether hearts really beat as one
Skyn, the condom and intimate wellness brand that’s as curious about science as it is about sex, has taken couples’ chemistry out of the bedroom and into the lab with new campaign 'Soft Pulse' which asks: can couples’ heartbeats actually sync, even when they don’t realise they’re in physical proximity?
In the experiment, couples and strangers sit back-to-back hooked up to heart-rate monitors. The strangers’ pulses stay stubbornly independent, while the couples’ gradually align, sans eye contact and whispered sweet nothings. It’s just biology doing its quiet magic and a spotlight on the physiological weirdness of connection.
Of course, it’s clear how the ‘experiment’ is going to turn out, and I think more could have been made of it as an experiential moment- but regardless, I like that Skyn celebrates the small, invisible ways intimacy actually works with real couples - a shared beat, a flutter, a sync you can feel but not see. This is what makes it feel real and tangible, despite the polished production.
Well, that wraps up another Creative Corner!
As ever, if you’re launching something that deserves a spot in Creative Corner, or have seen a campaign you just love, please do share it with us. Email emily.barnes@fanclubpr.com
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