Ajinomoto Japan raises awareness of household food waste with new campaign

Japanese seasonings production company Ajinomoto Japan has partnered with ad agency Hakuhodo to raise awareness of household food waste in Japan and help reduce it with a new campaign.

This comes as the brand realises over 2.4 million tons of usable food is discarded from households yearly in Japan. To spur change across the country, the partnership created Foodlosslla, a fictional monster made of household food waste, for Ajinomoto Japan’s food loss reduction campaign.

Also known as “Foodlosslla, what should humanity do?!”, the campaign features a short film directed by Japanese movie director and Academy Award winner Takashi Yamazaki, with Foodlosslla terrorising the city of Tokyo. The campaign was launched on 14 March and is currently ongoing with no set end date. 

Visual effects software VFX is skillfully used to capture an emotional and sad monster created out of grief for food waste, with fruits and vegetables falling from the skies and Foodlosslla destroying everything in his way.

Regular methods of combat prove to be useless and at the end of the film, with Ajinomoto’s seasoning and cooking utensils in their hands, a special rescue team chants the message, “A dash of seasoning and a little thought is key.”

With the mission of defeating Foodlosslla and reducing household food waste, Ajinomoto created a special Foodlosslla site with information on everyday tips on how to reduce household food waste, along with recipes searchable by leftover ingredients.

This campaign aims to shed light on the largely unknown state of food loss in Japan and how small improvements at home can result in the reduction of food waste.

In terms of marketing strategies, a spokesperson from Ajinomoto told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that the project aims to widely communicate the current situation and encourage consumers to take action to reduce food loss at home.

"From there, we developed measures such as the integrated use of web videos, newspaper advertisements, social media, PR, landing page, OOH, amongst others. For the special website, we encouraged consumers to practice food loss reduction by running the 'Foodlosslla combatting recipe search machine campaign which cleverly helps recommend recipes by searching leftover ingredients."

Over 100 years ago, the Ajinomoto Group was founded with the aspiration to help people “Eat Well, Live Well.” Beginning with research into amino acids, the Ajinomoto Group’s growth has been driven by “AminoScience”* as its foundation. As of today, the group consists of more than 30,000 global employees serving over 700 million consumers around the globe, according to its official website. 

The joy of cooking and sharing a delicious meal is at the heart of what the Ajinomoto Group does, according to Taro Fujie, president and CEO, Ajinomoto. The Ajinomoto Group’s goal of improving nutrition in Japan, set at its founding, has evolved and broadened into Ajinomoto Group Creating Shared Value (ASV).

"Through this initiative, we pledge to contribute to society while creating economic value, which fuels what I call a 'virtuous cycle of happiness'. By bringing the 'essence of happiness' to people around the world, we can in turn feel joy and be proud of the work we are doing," he added.

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