The Future Doesn’t Suck

Objective

To eliminate 1 billion plastic straws by the end of 2020*.

To help rid the environment of single-use plastic.

To remove plastic straws from digital usage thus shift cultural norms around drinking with single-use plastic straws.

To bring society and business together to make impactful change to ensure #TheFutureDoesntSuck.

* Bacardi set the goal of eliminating one billion single-use plastic straws by 2020 as part of the 2018 Good Spirited Initiative.

Description

In 2016, Bacardi led the drinks industry with the first #NoStraws campaign focusing on eliminating single-use plastic straw from its cocktails. In 2017, Lonely Whale amplified this early leadership by creating the Straw-less Ocean initiative to remove 500 million plastic straws from the U.S. waste stream. In 2018, the combined power of Bacardi and Lonely Whale came together to reduce the single-use plastic straw population by one billion by 2020.

With single-use plastic items are among the most collected pieces of trash in the oceans, poisoning the sea and harming aquatic animals that roam freely in them, Bacardi wanted to put an end to plastic pollution to make sure that the #TheFutureDoesntSuck. In collaboration with Lonely Whale, optimal ways to reduce future plastic pollution and help marine life was considered and eliminating straws seemed a natural starting point to have an enormously positive impact on the oceans’ health.

The campaign message was spread through corporate and brand activations, influencer events, social media and other platforms and calls-to-action around the world. It was supported by series of illustrations, created by Sarah Tanat Jones, that communicate the devastating impact of single-use plastic straws on the world’s oceans were created to highlight the plight of marine animals. It was formally kicked off in July 2018 in the UK closely followed by activations in the United States:

In London, England, Bacardi and Lonely Whale mobilised consumers and businesses to work together towards the goal of achieving a radical reduction of single-use plastic straw consumption throughout the city.
In the United States and the UK, Bacardi rum music festivals served plastic straw free cocktails and asked concertgoers to make a personal pledge to stop using single-use plastic straws by visiting www.thefuturedoesntsuck.org.
In the United States, Art installations at Life is Beautiful in Las Vegas called out the impact of plastic to the oceans and offered an Instagrammable moment to help spread the word and drive sign ups. In Miami and New York City, Bacardi rum aficionados invited top mixologists to beach clean ups and talks about sustainability. At Tales of the Cocktail, Bacardi rum hosted National Daiquiri Day where guests were asked to sign the pledge and join a New Orleans style procession to drive awareness.

The collaboration was then extended across seven countries, including China where a kick-off event brought together media and industry leads such as Cachet Hospitality Group, to promote the movement. Participating accounts received a Bacardi No Straws award to showcase their commitment to guests ordering at the bar.

To keep the conversation going on social, a digital campaign with Daniel Franzese featured Sydney the Sea Turtle. To ensure all her friends on land could understand her turtle talk, Sydney worked with Daniel to deliver her message via a PSA-style video which requested the removal of plastic straws from the soda cup and cocktail emojis. To give avid supporters an alternative emoji solution, Bacardi and Lonely Whale released a collection of Giphy stickers inspired by the campaign. The hope is that by removing plastic straws from digital usage, cultural norms around drinking with single-use plastic straws will shift altogether. In addition, Bacardi and Lonely Whale issued a “cease and de-sip” letter to the Unicode Consortium, the organisation that manages the emoji catalogue, requesting the removal of plastic straws from the soda cup and cocktail emojis.

To get the word out about #TheFutureDoesntSuck, Bacardi partnered with Lonely Whale, Major Lazer and Anitta to give consumers an alternative to throwing out their straws by turning them into music. The Straw Vinyl programme was launched in September 2019 to collect used straws from partner bars in the USA to upcycle them into a limited-edition vinyl record. The limited-edition record was of the single “Make it Hot” by Major Lazer and Anitta and was made entirely from used plastic straws. The record release was announced on Giving Tuesday through social media and made available for purchase online, selling out in just over a week. All proceeds went to Lonely Whale to drive impactful change for the oceans.

Other actions to help get rid of plastic straws around the globe include:

Bermuda: The global headquarters of Bacardi launched a new training programme for distributor partners and on-premises locations that offer alternatives to plastic straws.
China: Bacardi and Lonely Whale expanded the programme focusing on actions with ten leaders in the hospitality and spirits industry to drive adoption of the campaign.
Global: Consumers were invited to www.thefuturedoesntsuck.org where they could declare their commitment to ensuring #TheFutureDoesntSuck by pledging to go plastic-free and recruit restaurants, hotels, bars and other venues to do the same.
Global: Bacardi continued to work with national account partners to help them find alternate solutions to plastic straws and to train bartenders about how to make the shift while still delighting consumers at the bar.
Global: Bacardi announced a commitment to review its global supply chain, with the aim of removing non-essential, non-recyclable single-use plastic waste.
Global: Bacardi promised to attract, surprise and educate individuals across all demographics and geographies and encourage them to go beyond the straw and work collaboratively to ensure #TheFutureDoesntSuck.
UK: Bacardi donated the proceeds of ticket sales from its Casa Bacardi music events, taking place in London, Manchester, and Birmingham, to the Lonely Whale’s Straw-less Ocean initiative.
UK: Bacardi eliminated single-use plastic straws from branded and music events, while introducing biodegradable paper cups across the UK.
United States: Bacardi continued to partner with national and independent bars to promote plastic-free marine-friendly straws, or straw-less options for cocktails.
United States: Summer music festivals, including Life is Beautiful and Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, featured reusable or recyclable drinkware. Materials like bamboo and aluminium were used for cups, while straws were skipped or made with paper or even grass.

Partners

Lonely Whale: A non-profit dedicated to bringing forward ideas that positively impact the health of the ocean.

Daniel Franzese: Comedian and activist.

Major Lazer and Anitta: Music artists.

Results

Global: Views of Giphy Stickers: Pop Emoji Sticker - 3,591,097; Emoji Ocean Sticker - 7,871,493; Emoji Ocean Frame Sticker - 3,030,649; Sea Turtle Emoji Sticker - 5,703,885; Emoji Ocean Straw Sticker - 4,942,003 and Emoji Cheers Sticker - 9,562,901.

China: within a month the campaign had nearly 6.35 million impressions and successfully onboarded large hotel chains and restaurants to the movement. It also won the inaugural Sustainability Award at the DRiNK Magazine Bar Awards in China.

United States: More than 60,000 straws from 55 bars across the United States were used to create 250 limited edition records. Each record upcycled 600 single-use plastic straws. The campaign had 125,710,727 media impressions.