When a product in serious danger of extinction becomes the object of praise nationwide, there is a lesson to be learned for PR practitioners.
Here's the tale of the misunderstood "drink box," whose reputation as an un-recyclable product almost cost the aseptic packaging industry one of its most popular products.
Before the state of Maine banned the drink box in 1990, there was no trade association for the industry. The Aseptic Packaging Council (APC), in Arlington, Va., was created that year out of a need for a voice for the industry, and has since resulted in the creation of its public affairs firm, Association Issues Management (AIM), created in 1991 and also based in Arlington. AIM replaced the four PR firms originally hired to handle the drink box cause. The story goes like this:
The drink box became the subject of criticism in 1989, when state legislators in Maine decided that many landfills were filling up and not enough products were being recycled.
They blamed part of the problem on the drink box, which at the time, was not recyclable. The APC was not yet in existence, so there was no one to stand up to argue against the fact that the box was, in fact, not environmentally harsh, it just needed some work to make it a nationwide recyclable product. In addition to Maine, 11 other states, including Oregon, New York and Massachusetts, were waiting on state bans, as well. The packaging industry and its two super-giant competitor packagers were worried about their futures, so they decided to join forces and create an outlet to deal with recycling issues. Enter: the APC.
Arch rivals Combibloc, based in Columbus, Ohio, and TetraPak, in Chicago, the two main suppliers of the plastic, paper and aluminum packaging for drink boxes, worked together for the first time to save their products. They heard, through Maine state legislators, that if they wanted a lobbyist with experience in the industry and with the state decision-makers, independent public affairs consultant Marshall Cohen (now president of the APC) was their man.
Warren Tyler, CEO of Combibloc, said that the drink box issue, because of its negative image, was tough to tackle. "Cohen had to satisfy two mortal enemies...and sell people on an idea who were focused on one thing only: that all packaging is harmful," he said.
Cohen decided that the four PR firms the APC was using to help the drink box cause were not worth the approximate $1 million/year projected cost. He said, "The PR people we were using didn't get the strategic sense of what we needed to do. We had such an urgent issue and a product surrounded by negative attacks. So we created an in-house PR team with experienced, top-level people."
Cohen's decision to fight for the box started out as just that, but ended up in the creation of AIM, which now represents the APC. AIM was a direct result of the need for Cohen and his team's services.
There were up to 20 people working around the country on the cause at any one time, depending on where the most attention was needed. The main concentration of the campaign was in the New England states, Mid-Atlantic region and Upper West Coast.
Creating a Plan
Cohen went on a nationwide search, talking to everyone he knew i the industry, to find qualified, experienced people to join him on his mission to reintroduce the box.
His team designed a three-pronged national communications/public affairs program focusing on political advocacy, communications and recycling. They educated the environmental, recycling, paper, packaging and food/beverage trade press on the benefits of aseptics through press events and media interviews, featuring select spokespeople, like University of Arizona "garbologist" Bill Rathje and environmentalist Lynn Scarlett.
A large part of the campaign was aimed to educate children on the environmental benefits of drink boxes, by creating materials like videos, posters and curriculum guides and distributing a few hundred thousand to schools.
The political advocacy program was designed to establish a presence for the industry in government forums nationwide, position the APC as a resource at state and local levels, obtain grants for recycling programs through public/private partnerships.
AIM, Combibloc and TetraPak created curbside recycling programs and school programs for cartons drank in cafeterias.
The first year of the campaign, which was the most aggressive, had a projected a budget of about $1 million, which ended up costing Combibloc and TetraPak about $10 million combined, said Tyler.
Results
Maine's ban of the drink box was overturned in 1994, as were the 11 other state ban threats. Also in 1994, APC received the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development, given by the White House and presented by Vice President Al Gore.
Although other awards were given to companies and people, the drink box was the only package to receive the award, because it was so environmentally efficient. The White House realized that it's lightweight, doesn't need refrigeration to preserve the product, saving time and money in the shipping process.
What also made the campaign successful were the interviews that Cohen's team set up for Combibloc and TetraPak. "They were able to establish contact with environmental organizations around the country and get us a fair hearing," said Tyler. From there, people knew that the problem was not the carton, but rather, the fact that there were no programs or funds created to recycle it. (APC, 703/351-5062; AIM, 703/875-8650; Combibloc, 614/876-0661)