🥈 🧒🏻 👺 Armenian eco-movement: how a simple wall calendar grew into a large anti-plastic campaign 🥡 🤰🏽 ⏳

2019 was drawing to a close, as part of the advertising campaign, we had the task of making our partner, one of the leading banks in Armenia, AKBA-Credit Agricole Bank, a traditional annual calendar that they could present to their customers and partners before the holidays. We pondered and decided to go a little beyond what is usually done for banks: nothing boring, nothing standard, nothing prim, we want to be creative, interesting and useful.

Who are we

My name is Ashot Hovakimyan, I am the co-founder and creative director of the Armenian advertising agency Zuck & Berg, we briefly call ourselves “Tsuk”. We are young, full of energy and ideas, we have become famous thanks to approaches that go beyond the framework of the sometimes strict Armenian mentality.

A calendar that no one will throw away

A calendar is a useful thing, but in the era of gadgets, few people need it, it is easier to look into a smartphone. And the calendar donated by the bank has even less chance to stay in the client’s house, at best, it will gather dust somewhere in the corner until the first spring cleaning when it is discovered and thrown away. So the idea came to combine business with pleasure. Who raises a hand to throw away a wall calendar that holds 4 convenient and stylish eco-bags from recycled kraft paper? Yes, no one, everyone comes of age when you start to appreciate and collect packages.

Save the planet, or at least Armenia

From January 1, 2022, Armenia will completely ban the use of plastic bags. In the meantime, the rejection of plastic and the transition to alternative options is being actively promoted by the authorities. Recently, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan published a photo from the supermarket, which shows how he and his wife are packing in cloth bags. The initiative is good, but has not yet received a great response among the population. People are more likely to pack purchases, previously wrapped in polyethylene, in a small plastic bag, and then put it all in a large general plastic bag. It’s especially difficult for the generation of the 60s to abandon plastic, because this invention of their youth, which changed a lot in their usual way of life, made it easier to solve many problems. And then suddenly the younger generation claims that plastic is bad, that it is killing the planet.It's hard to put up with this. Armenia, like any developing country, solves more pressing problems and so far has little concern for the environment. According to some studies, plastic waste in Armenia makes up more than 30% of household waste, and more precisely, 3000 tons of plastic bags are used and thrown away in the country annually. Our task was to convey to people that the future of the planet is in our hands, and everyone can change something by force, but we must start from ourselves.that the future of the planet is in our hands, and everyone can change something, but we must start with ourselves.that the future of the planet is in our hands, and everyone can change something, but we must start with ourselves.

A bit of information that everyone knows, but do not worry

And so, everyone knows that getting into the environment, plastic bags are stored for a long time and are not biodegradable, as a result of which they cause stable environmental pollution.

The average shelf life of plastic bags is 10-15 minutes, and for decomposition in nature they require more than 100-400 years.
About 300 million tons of plastic are produced annually in the world, a significant part of which is more than 600 billion plastic bags.
The volume of plastic in the oceans is 6 times the volume of plankton.
In the soil, depending on the region, the plastic is 4-20 times more than in the water.
Microplastic particles have been detected even in the Arctic.

Fearfully? Fearfully! But how often do we remember this? Less often than necessary.

About the calendar: process, appearance, success

The calendar in Armenian is called “oratsuyts”, where “op” is the day, “tsuyts” is shown. But the word “tsuyts” is also translated as a demonstration, a protest. We decided to use a pun, and we got “ORACUITS against plastic”, i.e. calendar protest. Already not bad. The technical part turned out to be the most difficult: how to fit 4 medium-sized packets into a wall calendar? With difficulties. The whole team worked on the project - 20 people, more than 4 months. Designers managed to develop a calendar concept with 4 packages in such a way that it was functional, practical, stylish and convenient. The next problem was that no printing house in the country undertook to print such a project. After long negotiations, we managed to persuade one printing house, and at the cost of numerous fails we still managed to realize the idea.The first batch flew like hot cakes: 12,000 calendars got into the homes of not only the bank's customers, but also those who were interested in the idea, anyone could go to the bank and get their own sample. 4 packages for 4 seasons of the year is a kind of challenge, an opportunity to check whether you can last 3 months with one package. With careful use, this is quite possible, I say from personal experience.

We are not greedy, ready to share

The project was born as a commercial one, because there is a bank logo on the calendar and packages, but we want to make it social, because it is based on an important idea for us. And these are not empty words, we live like that. We managed to minimize the use of plastic, we abandoned so many familiar things, we do not have plastic bags, glasses, pens in the office ...

Our calendar idea is not patented in any way, it is in the public domain. Everyone can go to the landing page linked to the bank’s website and download the file for the calendar’s typography absolutely free. Any company can set its own logo on the layout and print similar calendars from recycled paper for itself. It is important for us that our idea win as many minds as possible. And it’s not a matter of empty vanity or the desire to keep up with eco-trends and hype on the topic of Greta Tunberg. We are really concerned, if not with the state of the entire planet, then certainly with the future of our country, we still have to live and raise children here. As adults and responsible people, we understand that this future is directly dependent on our actions today. One paper bag, one unrejected cup, one raised cigarette butt,one planted tree can improve or save someone’s life, and if you multiply this by 7.7 billion, then the whole planet.