It all started with a plastic straw.
Plastic straws seem harmless, but after working with Aardvark paper straws for more than three years, we’ve learned more about the dangers of plastic straws than one can even imagine possible.
Plastic straws pollute our oceans, beaches, and harm our marine life. Fish feed on microplastics, which can then end up on our own plates, and before you know it, humans ingest plastic for dinner. In the U.S. alone, we use 500 million plastic straws daily. By 2050, plastics in the ocean will outweigh the fish.
When Aardvark teamed up with Lonely Whale Foundation and HBO “Entourage” star, Adrian Grenier, to spearhead an environmental campaign to #stopsucking plastic straws in Seattle, Dittoe PR was thrilled for the opportunity to work on something that would truly make a global impact.
And it did.
Through Lonely Whale Foundation’s Strawless in Seattle campaign, 150 Seattle businesses, venues, and restaurants eliminated more than 2 million plastic straws across the city in September 2017 by using Aardvark’s marine degradable, biodegradable, FSC-certified, Made in the USA paper straws. Dittoe PR shared the Strawless in Seattle campaign with local, regional, national, and international media, which resulted in media hits in several major media outlets including PEOPLE, TIME, Fast Company, The Seattle Times, Puget Sound Business Journal, Treehugger, and much more.
The Aardvark paper straws account team also traveled to Seattle for the official Strawless in Seattle press conference, which Dittoe PR coordinated from the ground up. Keynote speakers in the presser included Adrian Grenier, co-founder of Lonely Whale Foundation; Dune Ives, executive director of Lonely Whale Foundation; Ed Murray, former Seattle Mayor; David Young, GM of CenturyLink Field for the Seattle Seahawks, and more influential Seattlites. Dittoe PR handled technical and venue-related logistics, drafted talking points for speakers, developed media kits, invited media to the event, managed media interviews with key spokespeople, and ensured the event was a success!
The day after the presser, the Strawless in Seattle announcement went totally viral. While our team had already secured some national stories about the campaign, and of course, local stories in the Seattle market, 50+ local media outlets across the nation, ranging from New York City to Texas to Nebraska, shared the news of the Seattle campaign.
Strawless in Seattle was one of our most successful campaigns yet, as Dittoe PR came out of the month-long campaign with 248 media hits, 290,946,957 media impressions and a total publicity value of $2,896,547! It was one of the most rewarding PR experiences we have ever had, as we helped spread the word about why plastic straws “suck” and garnered media attention of such high value in just one month.
0 Comments