Green Guerilla Marketing Hits the Streets
These Come From Trees Sticker
What would you think if you saw one of these stickers on a paper towel dispenser in a public bathroom? The folks at TheseComeFromTrees.com hope you'll think about the source of the paper towels and use as little as possible. By placing these stickers in plain view on paper towel dispensers, they're calling out an often forgotten fact about where the resources we use each day come from, and inspiring people to take a simple form of action right then and there. The stickers supposedly reduce paper towel usage by about 15%, saving 100 pounds of paper (about one tree) every year. For a simple little sticker, that's quite an impact!
These Come From Trees claims to be the first guerrilla public service announcement, a form of alternative marketing aimed at getting the public to think about their paper consumption, and take small steps to reduce it. While I'm not sure that this is the first guerilla public service announcement, it is certainly is a simple yet effective one. The message would benefit from being completely created using sustainable materials, of course, such as recycled or tree-free paper, and perhaps laminated with wax instead of petroleum-based plastic. I'm hoping as this project evolves, efforts will continue to make the stickers themselves fall more in line with their message.
Guerilla marketing is not a new phenomenon, but it is about time it was used for the benefit of the environment rather than the benefit of a corporation. Guerilla marketing is a subtle and usually low-cost way of marketing that often involves meeting the audience at their level and in their environment, most often this means on the street. Often the audience of a guerilla marketing message doesn't even know they are being marketed to, which makes this form of marketing both effective and controversial. The guerilla public service announcement seems like a great direction to take guerilla marketing tactics in.
Another example of a guerilla public service announcement was a campaign targeting air pollution in Chicago, which used a pressure washer to stencil messages into city sidewalks and show just how dirty the city was. Human shapes made from clean sidewalk bore the message "Chicago is plagued by air pollution. Don't just lie there. Contact your alderman." This is another example of a simple guerilla marketing message that incites immediate action.
When I see marketing messages on sidewalks and in public places, I can't help but think that they were inspired by street art and grafitti. Something about guerilla marketing just screams Banksy, although most marketing messages aren't quite a bold and poignant as his work. Street artists like Banksy often involve social commentary in their work, so street art is a great model for spreading a socially or environmentally important message. Now, if only all the guerilla public service announcements were as nicely designed and hard-hitting as Banksy's work…
If you want to help spread awareness about paper conservation, you can order stickers from These Come From Trees and (with permission of the property owners of course), post them on paper towel and toilet paper dispensers in your area. Or, if you're more artistically inclined, bust out some sidewalk chalk and create a guerilla public service announcement of your own, even if it's on your own driveway! I am now oddly compelled to start writing "stop global warming - go vegetarian" all over my local campus… sounds like a great weekend project.
Tags: Activism, Culture, Environment, Graphic Design, guerilla marketing, Marketing, Media, resource conservation, stickers, trees, urban
- Uncategorized
March 9th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
What an excellent way to create awareness, even though it shouldn’t have to be this way. If people just thought a little bit about what they are actually doing as they rush through their every day cycle. It’s not rocket-surgery
but it should be an excellent way to get the message across and in your face.
March 9th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
I just bought a set, thinking of using it during our Earth Day festival whenever we might need to use paper. Thanks!
March 9th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
What a great way to create awareness…… Where do the stickers come from?
I have an idea, let’s all promote vandalism!
Now, don’t we all know where paper comes from?
Don’t we all know what trees do?
Don’t we all know that humans do to our resources?
More effective would be to put these stickers on chair legs, houses, tables, floors, doors, shovels, hammers, acorns, books, toothpicks, fences, cribs, bed posts, pencils, magazines, money, bars, desks, scrabble letters ect.
Honestly, I mean come on. All you are really doing is making yourself feel better for waisting the three kilowatt hours worth of electricity you used surfing the internet.
I have a better idea, lets all just switch to plastic. It is way way better for our environment.
March 10th, 2007 at 1:49 am
Allister,
You’re right, the stickers do come from trees. And if you read the story behind the project, at the website (thesecomefromtrees.blogspot.com) you would understand that we’re aware of that, but that we thought it was an acceptable use of resources, in that our testing showed that a sticker on a paper towel dispenser reduced usage by 15%. That netted out to be about 100 pounds a year for a coffee shop. Don’t you think that one sticker to save 100 pounds of paper is a wise investment.
As for your comments about chair legs, houses, tables, and so forth, I think the goal of our project may not be 100% clear to you.
We’re not saying that no one should use paper or wood products. I’m am typing this on a desk made of wood right now, and I think that it’s a good use.
However, this project is addressing what we’re terming “unintentional overuse / waste” of the sort you see at a fast food restaurant when someone takes a stack of napkins, uses one or two, and then throws the rest away. Or in the bathroom, when someone pulls four or five paper towels out of the dispenser in quick succession, when two would get their hands just as dry.
We wouldn’t ask anyone to go without a chair leg, in that it would be a big impact, and costly to them. However, using two paper towels instead of four is painless, and when added up over a whole year, saves enough wood to make three chairs.
Does that help explain the project a little better? I hope so. I would encourage you to read the original blog posting.
To green options: thanks for the shoutout!
Pete
March 10th, 2007 at 1:53 am
Oh, and I forgot to address your point about vandalism.
The idea behind these stickers is that they don’t impose any cost on the business owner either–only benefit. The stickers are nice looking, and don’t look like graffiti. Also, they don’t have a preachy tone that would be insulting to customers. And lastly, they save real money. When we were designing them, we thought about what a business owner would want to see on his paper towels dispenser, if he had thought about it himself, took the time to sit down at his computer and do the design, produce the item, test the outcomes, and decide whether to go forward with it.
So we did it for them! And lastly, the stickers are just paper label stickers that are laminated, and thus are easy to remove if a business owner decided that saving 100 pounds of paper a year would not be worthwhile for him.
I hope that addresses your concerns about “vandalism.”
March 10th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Thanks for addressing these issues, Pete! Jeff
_______________________________________
Jeff McIntire-Strasburg
Senior Editor
Green Options
jeff@greenoptions.com
March 23rd, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Thanks for the comment! I’m chiming in a little late here, but Pete, I appreciate you visiting and addressing the issues that were brought up. I think “These Came From Trees” is an excellent idea, and proof that graphic design (even something as simple as a sticker) can really have an impact. I really don’t see Allister’s point about vandalism, since you clearly stated on your blog that you hope to work with business owners and get permission before placing them on paper towel dispensers.
The only suggestion I have for improving the concept is to look at the materials you’re using in the sticker - and see if you can reduce the footprint of creating it even more (i.e. use 100% post-consumer content recycled paper, or treeless paper like Yupo, and don’t laminate with plastic - try wax or if you’re using a treeless paper, most are waterproof, or creating stickers more locally to cut down on shipping and gas use). There’s always a way to push ideas further, and it has been interesting watching this idea evolve.
BTW, I LOVE the redesign of the sticker, and am actually doing an updated post on the topic right now.
~Megan Prusynski
my site | volksvegan adventures | unplug
October 30th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
It looks like you are trying to solve one problem, but creating a new one by having stickers printed up. Have you done a cost analysis for installing a blower? You could find how long it would take to break even by using a blower vs. buying paper towels and not to mention the clean up involved with paper towels and the time to restock.
This might be attractive to store owners as they are not only saving the environment, but also saving money.
December 25th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Small Business Marketing…
The responsible plan of action is to do your research entirely….