Starting the week of July 21, 2008, all 400 Pharmasave stores across Canada began replacing all plastic bags at the checkout counters with biodegradable bags. The Pharmasave bags typically take between nine months to five years to disintegrate compared to regular plastic bags that can take hundreds of years or more to decompose in a landfill.
This isn't just a case of eco-friendly messaging, for an eco-friendly product. According to Canadian Retailer Magazine, "Canadians take home an estimated 55 million plastic carry-out bags a week." The thinking behind this concept was recognizing that people really like plastic bags and have many household uses for them.
"While supporting the notion that plastic bags are bad for the environment, we needed to tell consumers that it is alright to carry Pharmasave's new biodegradable plastic bags as an alternative," said TBWA\Vancouver's President, Andrea Southcott.
Creatively, 100% biodegradability was the jumping off point, but what's also great is that it suggests different ways of reusing the bag while promoting its biodegradability in an easy to read way. If people only read the first sentence, they get all the info they need. If they read the whole thing, it's a light, fun read about a serious topic.
Located at multiple consumer touch points throughout the store, the point of purchase consists of a large die-cut window poster, shelf wobblers and stickers, employee buttons and T-shirts. The imagery, or lack of - in the case of the die-cut design, showcases what the image would look like as if the bags no longer existed. And as a means to demonstrate the true impact on the environment, TBWA\Vancouver has shown the amount of residual earth as a result of the bags breaking down.
"Often environmental messages can be pretty serious. We wanted to make the serious point but do it in a fun and noticeable way." said Creative Director, Paul Little.
TBWA\Vancouver also engaged National Public Relations to develop a media outreach plan which has been gaining traction across the country in both urban and rural TV, Radio and Print Publications.
| | |
