Inspired by the decision of the European Union to declare 2014 the ‘European year against food waste’ French supermarket Intermarché has introduced a surprising and highly sustainable campaign: “Les Fruits et Legumes Moches” (the Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables). In our society only perfect, standardized fruits and vegetables make it to the stores. Products that in appearance even slightly deviate from what is defined to be the standard are considered waste. Shockingly this concerns about 40 percent of produce!
Last March Intermarché introduced a three-step strategy to persuade their clients to buy the aberrant fruits and vegetables. First they launched a very appealing campaign with advertising agency ´Marcel´ starring various inglorious fruits and vegetables. They then served sample juices and soups to convince the public that the featured products may look different but taste just the same as their regular peers. And finally when people were convinced about the quality, they offered the inglorious products with a 30% discount. Intermarché prepared their campaign carefully and in the end only faced one problem: they ran out of stock pretty quickly.
This initiative shows that people do not demand perfection, accepting it has just become a habit. When given insight in the consequences of unrestrained, wasteful consumption, the very appealing alternatives and associated financial benefits people are more than willing to contribute to the reduction of unnecessary waste. Food waste is a global problem. Let´s make this a global solution.
More info at youtube/marcel.
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