An organic QR code made from seaweed was designed to catch eyes and make an impact without leaving one. How cool!
Cape Town, South Africa (22 October 2026) – Design and marketing agencies Dentsu and Carat South Africa recently teamed up with SANCCOB to create a QR code made entirely out of seaweed on a Cape Town beach.
It was designed to be fleeting. Once the tide rolled in, it washed away without a trace, so by now it’s long gone, back where it came from.
The team went through all that trouble, knowing the end result would only be temporary, to get people talking about the critically endangered African penguin, which could be extinct in the wild by 2035.
When scanned, the code takes visitors to a donation link for SANCCOB, the local organisation that does incredible work in rescuing and rehabilitating penguins and other seabirds.
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A message that made a splash without leaving a single footprint behind!
“Getting it right wasn’t simple.” says Graham Deneys, Chief Strategy Officer of Dentsu. “Our first attempt disappeared within seconds of the incoming tide. The second proved rather temperamental. On our final attempt, we battled the rising wind, the angle of the sun and some particularly unhelpful sandflies, which kept obscuring parts of the code.”
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Soweto Residents Turn Neglected Spaces Into Beautiful GardensThey got there in the end. The organic code had curious beachgoers stopping to check it out. That is how awareness is created, out of the box!
Thanks to photos shared on social media, the installation has kept people engaged even after the sea took it back. The code still works if you scan a picture of the installation, which is pretty clever! Try it out below.
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Kudos to the creative team for finding such an inspiring way to help protect our feathered friends!
If you’d also like to become an African penguin hero, check out the Penguin Palooza happening at Stony Point on 7 November. You’ll get to learn all about the plight of our penguins, and you’ll get to meet the people who protect them. Oh, and the penguins themselves!
Or, show some love for SANCCOB and the work it does by donating here.
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