For Japanese, the evening bath means time to relax and release stress. Japanese homes may be small compared to western ones, but the baths are large and comfortable enough to sit and soak for a long time. While bathing, people enjoy reading magazines, listening to radio, watching TV, text messaging on waterproof mobile phones, etc. Many media make their way into the bathroom. But newspapers, due to the impracticality of their size and texture, do not. So we changed both by issuing Japan’s first newspaper-on-a-washcloth. Traditional Japanese wash towels, or tenugui, are quite large and hold deep cultural associations, including traditional Japanese values of conservation and environmental harmony. Designed to look just like part of a daily newspaper, our tenugui featured Tokyo Gas’s environmental product information along with information on Japanese bath traditions. Of course, unlike a normal daily paper, ours would be read over and over.

Response several times higher than for usual newspaper ads; numerous requests received for tenugui newspapers. Campaign received TV news coverage and became a highly discussed topic on media- and ecology-focused blogs. Tenugui newspapers were put up for bid on Yahoo Auction. Campaign attention extended across the social spectrum.