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Blue Marlin branding for ButtsOut™ helps smokers take responsibility for cigarette litter
A new personal ashtray brand, ButtsOut™, is available from Budgens and Londis stores throughout the UK to provide a simple solution to the growing social and environmental problem of cigarette litter.
Cigarette litter is the UK’s biggest litter problem. It accounts for over two thirds of all the rubbish on UK streets, a staggering 122 tonnes is dropped daily, and 98% of town and city centres cite it as a major issue.
Now, a new personal ashtray brand, ButtsOut™, is available from Budgens and Londis stores throughout the UK to provide a simple solution to this growing social and environmental problem. ButtsOut is a quirkily designed box for cigarette ends that fits ergonomically in the hand and snugly in the pocket for use outside when an ashtray is not to hand. It’s readily affordable (suggested retail 99 pence), it’s fire resistant, easy to use and truly personal. When a lit cigarette is placed inside, it’s immediately extinguished and when full, the container is easy to empty and clean, ready for use again.
CSR Solutions, the company behind ButtsOut’s UK launch, worked closely with Blue Marlin Brand Design, who serve as branding consultants and have worked on the ButtsOut identity, pack graphics and communications materials. Blue Marlin’s brief was to come up with a brand design which marries the very serious environmental proposition with the playful design of the object itself. In keeping with the cigarette and litter theme, the ButtsOut logo is a u-shaped icon with a stubbed out cigarette in it and the colour palette mimics cigarettes, using shades of greyscale and an orange like the orange of a fag butt.
Recent research has shown that nearly 80% of the public say it’s important that the brands they buy are committed to acting in a way that can be considered socially aware or environmentally responsible.* ButtsOut ticks all the boxes and is already proven worldwide to have a dramatic effect on the reduction of cigarette litter. More than 500 successful ButtsOut campaigns have run in 16 different countries, partnering with local councils, retailers, corporates and environmental groups.
Dickie Felton, spokesperson for Keep Britain Tidy said: “Cigarette litter has doubled over the last year and we welcome all moves and partnerships working together to try and tackle this problem. Smokers need to start disposing of their cigarette butts responsibly and be aware that they could be fined £80 for dropping this litter. Businesses can also help by providing ashtrays outside their premises.”
Charles Hamshaw-Thomas, Principal of CSR Solutions concludes: "Our objective is to change what smokers do with their litter. Making personal ashtrays available everywhere that cigarettes are sold is integral to achieving that change. If we’re to rid the UK’s streets of cigarette litter, they need to become part of the public’s psyche.”
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