The Blue Paradox is an immersive pop-up experience that was open for 13 days in September 2021. The exhibition was held in London and was visited by 22,837 people. The goal of this exhibition is to educate and help people take the first step to act upon the ocean plastic crisis. As Cunningham (2021) states ‘The Blue Paradox’s 360-degree digital projections give viewers a visual, graspable understanding of how more than 8 million tonnes of plastic pollution a year affects marine life and food chains’. The exhibition is made by SC Johnson in partnership with Conservation International. The Blue Paradox (n.d.) states that ‘For each person that attended the Blue Paradox event, SC Johnson made a donation to Conservation International’s ocean protection efforts to help protect 1 square kilometre of ocean’. The organization is trying to get The Blue Paradox to ‘as many people as possible’ and are therefore looking for possibilities to bring the exhibition to other places (The Blue Paradox, n.d.).
The Blue Paradox has become extremely popular due to its ‘shareable’ content that went viral on TikTok. From a green media studies approach it is interesting to look into how this exhibition is being framed on TikTok but also how the exhibition itself is framed. Is it just a ‘nice’ experience to walk through or does it really nudge visitors to act upon the ocean plastic crisis? Does it just showcase the beauty of nature or does it affect the behaviour of visitors towards wanting to solve the environmental problem?