Talent management agency WeAreTENZING is offering $100,000 in media and services to McDonald’s, KFC, Subway and Burger King to lose their plastic straws as part of a new campaign, aptly titled ‘The Last Straw’. The first fast food outlet to eliminate plastic straws will be awarded $100,000 in media and services, as well as endorsements from a group including Olympians Tyla Nathan-Wong, Joe Sullivan and Ruby Tui, former World Cup winning All Black Adam Thompson and cricketer Mitchell McClenaghan.
The idea came about after a conversation between local personalities Jess Quinn and Amber Peebles. “We have regular catch ups with our clients, a number of them expressed that this was a winnable objective where if we combined together we could inspire change,” explained WeAreTenzing CEO and The Last Straw campaign manager Brooke Howard-Smith.
So far there has been a positive response, both from the public and employees of the fast food companies. “Although I can't say who, staff at two of them have reached out and let us know they are passionate about solving this.”
Camden Howitt of Sustainable Coastlines, who are supporting the campaign, said that straws are an simple start to how we approach eradicating single use plastic. “They’re something we use for less than 10 minutes but that last a very very long time, particularly in our oceans, and they’re an easy thing to cut out of our lives.”
