Are you a papertarian? That is the focus of a new integrated advertising campaign aimed at informing how choosing paper-based products are a smart choice for our forests and the environment here in the U.S. and to encourage recycling. The campaign from the Paper and Packaging Board (P+PB) launched today on streaming, traditional and cable TV, CTV, paid digital channels, magazines, podcasts and social media with celebrity Retta. She is a comedian and actress known for her roles on the Good Girls, Parks and Recreation and Ugliest House in America.

A papertarian is someone who lives a paper-based lifestyle. A Papertarian does right by the planet by making the choice to use products made from paper over other products because paper comes from trees, a sustainable, renewable resource not from fossil fuels. And by recycling, they are making the most of our natural resource.

“The ads shine a positive light on the industry and tells our sustainable forest management story in a way that hasn’t been done—getting consumers to think about what a product is packaged in before or at the point of purchase and its recyclability,” said Mary Anne Hansan, president of P+PB. “We are creating a movement that reminds consumers to consider the impact of their purchases on the environment.  When forests are used to make paper and packaging products, you encourage forest replanting and restoration. In addition, paper is easily recycled into other products over and over again.”

In the informative, yet humorous ads, Retta is seen at work, home and even the grocery store pointing out the sustainable virtues of paper and paper-based product packaging and humorously correcting her intern and neighbors about the proper ways to recycle.  

Numerous paper industry products are featured in the ads including ice cream and gum containers, fresh fruit carriers, cereal and pasta boxes, milk cartons, boxed water and cardboard boxes that are emptied and flattened for recycling.  Watch the ads here.

“Retta has the wonderful ability to teach with a firm but humorous hand,” said Hansan. “We all have a Retta in our lives who helps us be our best self.”

Hansan added, “I encourage everyone to join us and adopt a papertarian lifestyle. Whether you’re reading a magazine, making a handwritten shopping list or buying products in paper containers, know that you’re making a choice that’s good for planet Earth and the people who live here.”