Go
Papertarian
Pa•per•tar•i•an (noun)
A papertarian is someone who lives a paper-based lifestyle. From choosing paper products to practicing proper recycling, papertarians understand the positive impact that small, everyday choices have on our forests and the environment.
The Go Papertarian Campaign, which starred comedian and actress Retta, is a 360 effort for the Paper & Packaging Board to promote a paper-based lifestyle. It helps consumers realize the better choice of paper products and paper packaging at a time when guidance in the consumer space is greatly needed.
Empower people to be sustainable by tweaking seemingly small everyday behaviors, like reaching for the eggs or milk packaged in a paper carton instead of plastic or styrofoam.
The Paper & Packaging approached Manifest with the ask: get people to choose paper. So we created a lifestyle built around this. By getting people thinking about the material's origin and recyclability of a product at the point of purchase when they have the most choice and control rather than the moment they dispose of it, they can do the most good.
The campaign educates on the environmental benefits of using paper, a renewable resource. Choosing/using paper helps keep forests around, which provide habitats for animals, filters water and cleans the air. When people choose plastic, they are supporting more drilling for oil, not a renewable resource. Many oil-based products are rarely recycled (9%).
tv & online videos
The Go Papertarian TV spots, starring comedian and actress Retta, are designed to educate and create consumer behavioral change towards more sustainable and recyclable product packaging options in a humorous, yet relatable way.
"Home" :30
"Grocery" :30
"Curbside" :30
"Forestry" :30
Choosing paper isn’t the lesser of 2 evils, it’s the better of 2 materials.
social
We continued the comedic approach on HowLifeUnfolds social channels (Paper and Packaging Board's consumer-facing voice). Content educated and highlighted the various opportunities out there to make the smart choice. We created assets that complimented our celebrity kick-off campaign.
Year two of the campaign showed how the paper-based lifestyle could even be the anecdote to the addictive digital world we often find ourselves in.
microsite
The TV and social assets directed to a website where our audience could learn about being a papertarian, other ways to live a paper-based lifestyle and why it matters so darn much. We created articles, quizzes and pledges to create various ways for people to engage.
The Results
What started out as a made-up word in a deck for social ideas blew up into a legit lifestyle choice that is now in the world lexicon. Just google papertarian. Across the country, people and influencers alike are using the word and the call-to-action to describe their choices to live a paper-based lifestyle and encourage others. We even changed the internet’s mind that using paper is bad. Now it’s on you, will you Go Papertarian?
My Role:
creative direction concepting
design
animation
prop making
set design
Campaign Deliverables:
4 TV & online vides
checklist guide
social media assets
paid & earned media
10+ long form articles
content strategy
print
Company Credits:
Tess Dmitrovsky
John Hobbs
Jen Bravo
Mitch Stomner
Sara Berlowitz
Selected Works
©2025 Kristen Youngman. All rights reserved.