The Campaign

Our idea was to convince people that even the smallest piece of paper can have an afterlife. Hence, we created the illustration for our ad using nothing but Chads, the tiny pieces of paper left behind after a paper is punched. To reinforce our message, we used a strong cultural reference to demonstrate this fact.

Creative Execution

To convince people that even the smallest piece of paper can have an afterlife, we developed a series of 3 press ads which depict 3 different Sri Lankan devil masks, created using Chads. The significance of using devil masks is that they represent the afterlife in Sri Lankan arts and culture. What’s more, we went a step ahead in taking our message to the nation by also employing a one of a kind media strategy where we punched every page of all newspapers printed that day to collect the chads for recycling, to further reinforce and actively embody our message.

Our work became instant hits on social media as well as local and international news segments. It was so arresting and timely, that even the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, took up our cause and praised us on social medial in appreciation of our efforts. At the end of our campaign, Ceylon Today collected the cache of punched paper pieces and recycled them as a symbolic gesture, further creating massive PR responses. With it, Ceylon Today demonstrated just how big an impact we can make on the world, with the smallest of things.

This particular piece is relevant to the category because we went a step ahead than just producing a print campaign with a message. Instead, we actively embodied our message by turning it into an act where we punched every page of our newspapers the ad appeared on to collect the tiny punched pieces of paper for recycling. It was a one-of-a-kind media strategy we implemented in all newspapers on islandwide circulation, which further enhanced our message.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Our strategy entailed recycling the world’s smallest pieces of paper. So, we used Chads – the tiny fragments of paper left behind after papers are punched – to create our series of press ads which depicted 3 different devil masks to take our message of “even a tiny piece has an afterlife”. The devil masks served two purposes in our campaign as not only was it a symbol of the afterlife in Sri Lankan culture, it also instilled a fear of wasting amongst our target audience which was a majority of Sri Lankans, seeing as how Ceylon Today is the country’s national English daily.