To combat household food waste by 50 per cent by 2030, Love Food Hate Waste NZ (LFHW) teamed up with TBWA\New Zealand to help bring much-needed attention to this issue. To bring awareness to this, TBWA\NZ made their ‘for good’ messages go bad, creating massive billboards that grew mould over a series of weeks.
New Zealanders waste $3.2 billion of food every year, which is terrible for the environment and for our wallets.
TBWA\NZ worked with Landcare Biometrics and specially created three giant Petri dishes filled with agar that would grow a type of mould that is not dangerous to the general public. That mould was from a food source, blue cheese, with Petri dishes themselves measuring 1 metre in diameter. The outdoor ad specialists Bootleg got on board to help create the unique living billboards.
The billboards went live in mid-April, gradually producing mould naturally over the course of six weeks. The stunt was in service of drawing attention to the massive food waste issue and a new initiative, reusable ‘eat me first’ stickers. The reusable stickers were free and made available to the public from a quick scan of a QR code on the OOH, LFHW’s website, regional councils or available to pick up for free in selected Woolworth’s stores across the country.
“We needed our message to be in your face,” said Sophie Wolland, project manager of LFHW. “Because food waste is such a major issue that we don’t often think about day to day.
“The stark visual representation of wasted food aims to shock passersby into action, motivating and inspiring Kiwis to reduce their food waste, minimise their carbon footprint by cutting harmful emissions from food waste and save money.”
Shane Brandnick, TBWA\NZ chief creative officer, said: “It’s one of those issues where it’s tough to get people to take action; it needs some big attention-grabbing stunts and a smart way to remind us all to eat our older food first before it needs to be thrown out.
“This campaign was super technical for the team to deliver but a really vivid reminder that if we don’t eat it, we waste it – and that’s terrible for a family’s budget and really bad for our environment”.
Love Food Hate Waste also went big with several giant monuments of mouldy food. A huge apple covered in mould by the waterfront in Wellington reminded Kiwis that “nobody likes a bad apple,” while a massive piece of mouldy toast in the train station nearby inspired people to “break the mould”.
The campaign culminated with the revived NZ Lamb & Beef’s 16-foot-tall lamb chop in Te Komititanga Plaza at Britomart with a mouldy twist. Now gone off, just like all their campaign billboards and posters, the lamb chop towered over the public covered in faux mould. Accompanying signage read “the meat of the matter”—which is surely fitting for the way this for-good organisation approached solving this prevalent issue.
Credits:
Creative agency: TBWA\New Zealand
Chief creative officer: Shane Bradnick
Creative directors: Frank Garguilo and Jeff Tune
Art director: Michael Gillard-Allen
Copywriter: Crystal Hay
Chief executive officer: Catherine Harris
Group business director: Adam Brami
Senior business director: Monique Seil
Producer: Mark Paisey
Scientists: Bevan Weir and Diana Lee/Landcare Research
Big spoiler monuments: Carl Moody/Bootleg
Media: MBM
Marketing & communications manager: Juno Scott-Kelly
Project manager: Sophie Wolland
Digital marketing co-ordinator and content manager: Gel Lim
