Unforgettable Bag

Agency

Grey KL

Client

Tesco

Product/Service

Tesco

Brief

Malaysians use on average 300 plastic bags per year, 9 billion bags in total, the vast majority are single use.  Tesco Malaysia halved the number of single-use plastic bags between 2011 and 2017, but the rate of reduction is not fast enough. Other Tesco’s, like the UK, have already banned single-use, but Malaysian education and attitudes lag behind.  BRIEF: Accelerate the reduction in single use bags and help position Tesco as a leading sustainability champion and help build the path to total ban by 2020.  OBJECTIVE: Encourage customers to bring back the bags for every time they shop. Educate customers on the impact of plastic bags Help to significantly change long-term behaviour to allow for the eventual phasing out of single use bags

Solution

This is about creating behaviour change on a mass scale. Instead of punishing people for forgetting to bring a bag, let’s reward them for bringing them back. By simply adding a simple change to the design, a barcode, we transform the bag into an ongoing discount, an incentive. Creating a regular, habit forming reward that actively changes behaviour. 

Currently Tesco has over 30 re-usable bag designs, all useful but mostly ignored. We simply adapted an existing bag. No new set up costs, simply changing the 1 colour print design of their cheapest and most accessible re-usable bag.

Using a hand drawn pattern technique - the design was created for mass appeal.  An attractive pattern that people would want to carry for aesthetic reasons as well as ethical.

The three unique barcode designs represented the animals most at risk from plastics around the coast of Malaysia - The Whale, The Turtle, The Fish.  An emotive reminder of the impact of the consumers actions.