Instead of having some opinion leader talk about this problem, we gave a voice to the food products themselves to speak to shoppers in the food aisles. We added a teary-eyed character crying out “Take me with you! Or they’ll throw me away” to existing price-discount stickers. By appealing to people’s empathy, we got people to “rescue” food.

-We ran a pilot project in a store with the Tokyo city government. We also held a press conference at the Tokyo Press Club, which gained extensive media coverage and generated a buzz.

-Tokyo’s governor also endorsed the project at a regular press conference.

-In light of the program’s reception, Aeon Retail, Japan’s No. 1 general merchandise store operator, started rolling out the program to all its 380 stores.

- We invented a sustainable model that lets anyone easily help reduce food loss, benefiting sellers, shoppers, and society. Using PR to spread this model has transformed people’s awareness and behavior and triggered a social movement.

- During the in-store pilot project, 90 percent of shoppers and 100 percent of workers said they supported the initiative.

- Aeon Retail, Japan’s No. 1 general merchandise store operator, is rolling out the program to all its 380 stores.

- The project earned an estimated 4 million dollars in media coverage in just the major media outlets. It also was also covered by many online news sites and went viral on social media.

- ”Food rescue” became a well-known movement and the phrase became a word used regularly.

- Plan to expand the program to other retailers and local governments.