Reframing The Recycling Message For Good…

So much of what we look at as successful storytelling comes in how we frame the message. A nuance, a look at different angle, a slight shift of a phrase, and suddenly we look at things in a much different light.

I remember when my college roomie Joe Giblin, who was in ROTC, brought back his ration box from a weekend away. It had the usual cans of this and that but also has an “interdental stimulator” amongst the contents. What could it be, some special military device designed to eke   out nutrition in a crisis time? Nope, It was a tooth pick. Great name though.

I also remembered…and there is a reason for this…in the old cartoon comedy “The Flintstones,” when Fred was thinking about a career change. He saw a great ad for a new path to riches and respect…and applied for the job of “Resident Stationary Engineer.” Fred came home to tell his wife Wilma about the new move away from the rock quarry all excited about his new path. She listened blinked her black eyes and said “Fred you are going to be a janitor?” All in the spin.

I raised this because I was in Washington DC for meetings and was passing a series of what I thought were garbage and recycling cans on a corner. However, upon a deeper look, I noticed I wsn’t looking at a recycling bin…I was looking at a “Dream Machine.’ The small copy explained that the in, with funding from PepsiCo, will provide a donation for every can or bottle donated to help disabled veterans start their own business. WOW!

Here with a simple act you help the environment and launch a career, and can do it each and every day with your plastic and glass. The stuff dreams are made of.  I asked a few Washingtonians about the program and none knew about it, but they all said they would go and look for the cans, which were all over The District. The copy, granted, was pretty small, but the message was not, and it came from a thoughtful reframe of what the amplification of picking up some trash could do.

It certainly wasn’t a toothpick or a renamed job at a glitzy title, but it showed what impact can occur when you rethink the simple and reframe a message.

Big picture storytelling for social good. One can at a time.