Insight

Straws have become the poster child for plastic waste. Like the plastic bag, they’ve become a handy symbol for a complex problem rooted in years of casual ignorance and unsustainable consumption.

Using IKEA’s very last straw as our key creative asset and symbol, we wanted to show that single-use plastic straws are just the tip of the iceberg and highlight the thousands of other small changes we can all make to have a positive impact on the planet.

Objectives

1. Place IKEA at the heart of the sustainability agenda and position the brand as thought leaders campaigning for real, positive change

2. Achieve a moment of creative communication that kicks off IKEA’s People and Planet Positive sustainability strategy

3. Consider today’s biggest sustainability challenges and show the actions IKEA is taking to tackle these

4. Influence, engage and mobilise others to take action to address the biggest societal challenges

In June 2018, IKEA announced its revised People and Planet Positive strategy. One commitment was to remove all single-use plastics, starting with single-use plastic straws in the UK and Ireland.

With everything we needed to say about sustainable living, we couldn’t say it all. So we used a symbol and a well-known phrase as a simple but powerful message.

We took the very last single-use plastic straw from an IKEA UK and Ireland store and created a commemorative installation in the Design Museum.

One straw. Encapsulated forever on a plinth in a museum glass box. But not just any straw, a straw that started a nationwide campaign.

Acting as a powerful full-stop to the era of single-use plastics, a reminder of our collective behaviour, and a call to action to make more small changes for a big impact.

It was probably the first straw to ever get good press.

Our approach was to create something that would have real-world impact and a clear point of difference.

We had a big challenge on our hands though. IKEA has long been perceived as contributing to a throwaway society – remember the iconic IKEA lamp advert over 15 years ago? As a brand previously associated with unsustainable consumption and with its ex head of sustainability famously quoting that we’ve reached “peak stuff”, it was a task that demanded creativity. And with a tiny budget.

Despite these preconceptions, IKEA is now leading above the rest. Despite a strong sustainability strategy and years of taking action to have a positive impact on the planet, perceptions are still everything.

We decided when you can’t say it all, use a symbol.

And when it comes to unsustainable consumption and behaviours, IKEA had its last straw.

We unveiled the IKEA Last Straw exhibit at the Design Museum in October 2018 - the week that IKEA removed single-use plastic straws from its UK and Ireland operation.

We also created a film of IKEA’s Last Straw to show the world its commitment to making single-use plastic a thing of the past. Simple but impactful in its execution, the short film shows the straw as nothing more than an artefact.

The film concludes with a positive call to action, urging viewers to consider other small steps that will have a collective big impact on the planet.

The film was seeded across IKEA’s online and social channels, encouraging people to share the small everyday steps they were taking to be more eco-friendly.

We used the assets and interviews with IKEA’s Country Sustainability Manager, to reach business, sustainability, consumer affairs, lifestyle and trade media.