Is this shampoo bar a billion-bottle idea?

The FMCG industry has a big sustainability problem: Plastic packaging.

Enter Manila-based agency BBDO Guerrero, which is touting what it calls a "dissolving bottle". 

As intended, that headline grabbed Ad Nut's attention. Weird, Ad Nut thought, does BBDO Guerrero have material scientists on its staff? Have they made some sort of engineering breakthrough?

On closer inspection, what we have here is something of a bait and switch. The agency has not invented a new kind of biodegradable plastic or indeed any kind of substitute for a shampoo bottle. It has simply come up with the idea of taking bar-form shampoo (an existing but not terribly popular product) and forming it into the shape of a bottle. 

The agency says it's an "open-source re-design of traditional shampoo packaging, giving it an eco-friendly makeover", and that it "aims to make shampoo bars more intuitive by giving them a shape similar to the kind of small bottles used in hotels".

A local manufacturer, The Naturale Market, is making the bars, each of which replaces a 90 ml bottle of shampoo. The product has been tested with some hotels on Boracay island. 

Not a bad idea, actually. Eliminating all those tiny shampoo bottles given out in hotels would be a significant victory, and the agency has a point that shampoo in the traditional shape of a bar of soap would be confusing to guests.  

BBDO Guerrero says partner brands can customise their own versions of 'The Dissolving Bottle', and the agency is also offering to supply the molds at cost to artisanal producers for community livelihood projects. More information is at www.thedissolvingbottle.com.

In case you're wondering, Ad Nut doesn't contribute to the plastic pollution problem by buying shampoo and other unctions. Ad Nut's lustrous coat and Ad Nut's alluring tail look absolutely amazing naturally, without the need for any products whatsoever.

Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. You can also check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame, or read about Ad Nut's strange obsession with 'murderous beasts'.