Billabong Somehow Manages to Combine Recycling and Humour

Making boardshorts from recycled plastic bottles is an awesome initiative, but it’s not exactly sexy.

It’s a delicate equation trying to sell something with a message behind it. As consumers we’re so bombarded with sponsored posts, pop-ups, disguised partnered content and all the other new age ways of trying to persuade us to part with our hard-earned, that defences are at an all-time high. Add a pious message behind that and you’re making things seriously hard for the marketing department. And that, ladies and gents, is why the new Recycler campaign from Billabong is such a triumph.

For all the twists, hacks and tubes, nothing tickles the feels like the delicate crop of a take-off.

Bong’s devotion to turning single use plastic bottles into trunks is actually pretty neat. It’s easy to be cynical about big companies jumping on pertinent issues to try and sell you stuff, but you can’t deny that a co going out of their way (and out of their pockets) to try and make their processes less strenuous on the planet is far better than them doing nothing. Employing Jed and Vaughan of Ain’t that Swell (and a million other surf-related things) fame to write and voice the characters for the lates ad is a further master stroke.

The backdrop that’s sold a million pairs of trunks.

A handful of takeaways: Jack Freestone might well be the best boardshort model in surfing (he’s genuinely dreamy). Jed’s “kidding meeee…” whilst getting pumped up the spout is a legit rib-tickler. The pair of trunks below are lovely, recycled or otherwise. And, most importantly, the dual storyline of the bottles in different bins is one of the most creative ideas we’ve seen in surfing for some time. 

Not bad Bong, not bad…

Grab yourself a fresh pair of trunks for summer here.