Need to Know

Beirut – Unilever detergent brand OMO has developed a water-soluble clothing tag made entirely from its laundry detergent.

The OMO Tag is a marketing effort that rethinks in-store sampling by taking detergent out of the supermarket and into clothing retailers. Each tag contains enough detergent to wash up to three garments and is designed to be placed directly inside the washing machine with the clothing.

OMO – also known as Persil – has teamed up with Beirut’s largest chain of sporting merchandise stores, Sports 4ever, to promote the tags. It is attaching the dissolvable tags to every item of sportswear on sale in stores. ‘The OMO Tag reinforces OMO’s Dirt is Good brand purpose, encouraging families to embrace real-life experiences,’ says Samer Anouti, home care marketing manager at OMO.

By transforming what is typically a throwaway component of packaging into something with additional functionality, OMO is demonstrating the value of Whole-system Thinking.

Tokyo – The car-maker has announced the six finalists for this year’s Lexus Design Awards (LDA), which celebrate transformative design solutions with a positive impact.

The six concepts aim to address near-future challenges by championing biodegradable materials, using renewable energy sources or reducing carbon footprint. ‘This year’s submissions revealed a strong awareness of the connectedness of our world and the need for increased social consciousness,’ says John Maeda, technologist and LDA judge.

Among the finalists is Rezzan Hasoglu, whose Arenophile project aims to create new composite materials using desert sand. Architectural start-up Prevalent is developing Solgami, an innovative window blind that uses origami geometry to allow users to better balance lighting and electricity generation. Fellow finalist Dmitriy Balashov’s Green Blast Jet Energy will make it possible to collect the energy produced by aircrafts taking off, and re-use it in airports.

Learn more about the winner of last year’s LDA, Malaysian creative studio Aesthetid, in our dedicated interview.

Rather than choosing one or the other, Americans are consuming plant-based milk as well as dairy milk, according to a new report by Dairy Management. The survey found that 44% of milk-drinkers in the US purchased both dairy milk and plant-based alternatives in 2018. The survey also highlighted questions about potentially misleading terminology – more than half of consumers said they believe plant-based drinks are labelled as ‘milk’ because their nutrition content is the same as dairy.

Although plant-based alternatives, such as almond and soya milk, have been gaining mainstream appeal for years, 50% of consumers are still unwilling to give up dairy. While brands tend to assume that those who eat plant-based foods are strictly following these diets, there is a growing flexitarian movement, as demonstrated by the Planetary Health Diet, which balances human health with environmental sustainability.