Once they were must-have items, boasting cutting-edge features like dual cassette decks. Now they are forgotten, tucked away in the junk drawers, back rooms and attics of homes all across the province.
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Toronto agency Juniper Park is giving these unused electronic items a voice in a new radio, print and online campaign for the Ontario Electronic Stewardship’s (OES) “Recycle Your Electronics” program.
The province-wide campaign is aimed at encouraging electronics hoarders to properly dispose of their unused radios, TVs, cellphones and other wired bric-a-brac. The campaign launched Monday with a series of radio ads that give voices to outdated electronics items such as a dot matrix printer, a 1980s boombox and an old TV.
Countless numbers of these types of items sit gathering dust because their owners have either a sentimental attachment to them (my first cell phone or the stereo I bought with my own money) or perceive them as still having value, said Alan Madill, partner and executive creative director with Juniper Park, and himself a reformed electronics hoarder.
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In one 30-second spot, a boombox asks why it is sitting in the attic rather than proudly perched on its owner’s shoulder. “C’mon, load me up with 20 D-cell batteries, turn on my extended bass, and let everyone within a five-block radius experience your excellent taste in music,” says the radio.
A voiceover at the end of each spot informs listeners “Your old electronics have had their day,” before directing them to RecycleYourElectronics.ca to find out how and where they can dispose of unused electronics.
Madill said that radio spots are meant to place the items in an era before iPods, flatscreen TVs and smartphones. “It was cool back then, but when you bring it to modern times, that technology sounds so old-fashioned,” he said. “It gives people a bit of a laugh, but at the same time it makes them realize ‘This isn’t a person I want to hang out with anymore.’”
The radio ads will be complemented by print ads in community and daily newspapers, as well as some online advertising, beginning early next year.
According to the OES, the Recycle Your Electronics program has diverted approximately 50,000 metric tons of electronics equipment (the equivalent of 6,250 tractor trailers) from landfill sites since its 2009 introduction.
Even so, Sandra Pakosh, director of marketing and communications for the OES, said that internal research has found that an estimated 45% of Ontarian are “passive” when it comes to recycling electronics items.
While Juniper Park has handled what Madill characterized as “one-off” projects for OES, this marks the agency’s first campaign for the client. Media for the campaign was handled by Toronto-based Wills & Co.
