Corporations jumped onto the bandwagon of manufacturing metal straws and Hydroflask dupes for profit, which in part produced waste and pollution in their cheap mass production. On the other hand, this hashtag can be seen as a marketing gimmick as it grew exponentially online. The “VSCO Girl” trend often promoted purchasing colorful Hydroflasks and metal straws to then decorate them for an aesthetic (especially to take photos for social media).įrom one perspective, #SaveTheTurtles can be seen as a harmless trend that positively contributed to the brewing conversation around environmental issues and their solutions. Furthermore, this dialogue was concurrently on the rise as climate activism started to take a front seat in the media with figures like Greta Thunberg. I’d never seen a conversation with this size and fervent passion since the time of the 2010 BP Oil Spill due to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig. The anti-plastic straw movement emphasized a bigger issue at hand with our environment though: pollution and its effect on our ecosystems and wildlife. On a more serious note, it was a catalyst for the state of California to pass a law to ban plastic straws in restaurants that took effect in 2019. This cause became so big that it became associated with the “VSCO Girl” aesthetic, which increased its popularity even more with its reference in comedy bits on TikTok.
It also skyrocketed sales of colorful, stainless steel water bottles called Hydroflasks. All of a sudden, companies to influencers were producing metal straws and marketing them to the public in step with the demand craze. From there, it gained traction across the internet and started a trend to ditch plastic straws and buy metal ones. #SaveTheTurtles was sparked by a video of a suffocating sea-turtle with a plastic straw lodged in its nose. This is a still from the heartbreaking video that went viral across the internet, where a marine biologist and her team remove a plastic straw in the nasal cavity of a male sea turtle off the coast of Costa Rica. One that I find the most memorable that garnered attention from activists (and internet comedians over time) is the “Save the Turtles” movement. Well before the pandemic became a main topic in all conversations across social media, there was a time when our feeds and For You Pages were filled with trends ranging from silly dances to real-world issues.