Cut The Wrap
Did you know that every year the UK throws out enough gift wrap to circle the world nine times? We think that’s pretty rubbish.
We decided to take a stand & made it easy for everyone to join us by creating a pledge to #CutTheWrap during the festive season.
Challenge & Insight
We needed to create an impactful campaign to launch our own sustainability initiative, The World’s Most Rubbish, in the UK.
As a society our awareness around the sustainability agenda is higher than ever, but as individuals there’s still a sense of helplessness.
The campaign not only needed to drive awareness of our mission to make waste a thing of the past — it had to make it easy for people to take action.
Opportunity & Solution
We realised that, despite what many of us thought, most wrapping paper can’t actually be recycled.
This was a perfect opportunity to reduce waste and help everyone make a positive impact by doing less, not more.
So, with only 6 weeks until Christmas, #CutTheWrap was born: a social movement that encouraged everyone to adopt more planet-friendly alternatives to traditional wrapping paper.
With big plans for the future and a very short deadline, it was all hand s on deck for our team to kick-off the inaugural #CutTheWrap campaign.
We’re always looking for ways to make a positive impact on the planet. While many are dwelling on the issues, we want to come up with solutions that make it easier for people to take action.
Andrew Hewitt, The World’s Most Rubbish Co-founder
The Pledge
Gift wrap is sooo last season.
Just in time for the festive season, we created a shareable video to introduce our pledge. It invited people to break tradition & ditch the gift wrap. Everything was produced in-house, from soundtrack to illustration, design to animation, even starring our own hands.
By sharing the pledge, people could let their friends & family know they didn’t want any of their gifts wrapped and that they weren’t wrapping anyone’s presents either.
Website
A centralised hub for all things #CutTheWrap.
We created a website (powered by an eco-server, of course) as the go-to destination at the heart of the campaign. It made it easy for people to find all they needed to get involved, join the movement & spread the word.
Sustainable stickers
Making gift-giving easier than ever by providing an alternative that everyone could stick to.
We wanted to show that giving unwrapped gifts is a conscious choice, not just laziness. So we gave out free, sustainable stickers (compostable paper & soy-based ink) that explained why the gifts weren’t wrapped.
Local retailers joined the movement to help distribute them, and we even had people knocking on our studio door to get their stickers!
Spreading the word
A toolkit for social wraptivists.
We shared content & assets people could use to spread the message across social channels. In addition to the classic assets, we created a set of animated digital stickers that made all sorts of gifts shine bright on Instagram Stories.
Earned media
How our DIY social movement became the talk of the town.
#CutTheWrap demonstrated that tiny acts can lead to great consequences. Our efforts have garnered thousands of impressions & shares with millions reached, including some we’re especially proud of.
Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, HubBub & Pentatonic & many others shared our video upon launch.
More than mentions & shoutouts, the campaign sparked real change. We were excited to see people creating new festive traditions & going naked on their Secret Santas.
You can help us make a greater impact in 2020. Follow @TheWorldsMostRubbish on Instagram & get in touch to get involved.
The World’s Most Rubbish is part of Ventures, an ever-growing collection of cultural formats proactively identified, created, activated & distributed by to help move creative culture forward.