“Oui Pub” – What conclusions can be drawn from the experiment? – News

It’s time to take stock of the “Oui Pub” experiment. We are more familiar with its opposite – “Stop Pub” –, this sticker to put on your mailbox when you want to demonstrate your refusal to receive unaddressed advertising material. Launched in 2004, Stop Pub aimed to put an end to increasingly criticized paper waste, while 760,000 tonnes of leaflets were distributed in France in 2021. A large part is thrown in the trash without being consulted.

But Stop Pub has shown its limits. First of all, its rate of affixing to mailboxes is low (around 17% in 2020). Above all, when it is there, in 57% of cases, the sticker did not allow a total disappearance of advertising prints, pointed out a report from the Ecological Transition Agency (Ademe) from February 2021.

Reverse the approach with Oui Pub

Hence this desire to review the approach, even if it means reversing it. This is the whole spirit of Oui Pub which consists of prohibiting the distribution of these unaddressed advertising materials, except in mailboxes on which a Oui Pub sticker has been stuck. This system does not yet exist on a national scale but has been tested since 1^is May 2022 in 14 communities that volunteered*. The experiment will end on 1^is next May, but the government has already submitted its evaluation report last October to parliament and has just published it.

First observation: the affixing of the Oui Pub sticker on mailboxes varies greatly from one territory to another. The rates range from 0.33% in Bordeaux (Gironde) to 18.42% for the urban community of Dunkerque Grand Littoral (North). Does this mean that there are so few French people attached to receiving unaddressed advertisements? Not so fast. One of the limitations of Oui Pub – which also exists with Stop Pub – is that the existence of these stickers is not always well known. The estimated awareness of the Oui Pub experiment by the residents concerned varied from 25% to 77% depending on the territory with an average of 50%, indicates the government report.

Significant reductions in paper waste

The 14 pilot territories also say they have observed, overall, compliance with the rules of the Oui Pub system. The few shortcomings noted are “printed material concerning small local businesses not covered by the exemptions”, points to the report. Result: these territories saw significant reductions in the tonnes of paper waste collected during the experiment. Between 20% and 70% depending on the location with an average drop of 48%. And this decline can be explained, at least in part, by that of printed advertising. Their share in the total paper waste collected in these 14 territories increased from an initial range between 17% and 40% to a range between 5% and 19% during the experiment.

But should we give all the laurels to Oui Pub? If the drop in volumes of printed advertising is more marked in the pilot territories, this reduction is true everywhere in France and began before the Oui Pub experiment. The volume thus increased from 900,000 tonnes in 2019, to 766,000 tonnes in 2021 then to around 400,000 tonnes in 2022 and 2023. Since the health crisis, marked in particular by the soaring costs of paper and energy, a large part of advertisers have started to shift towards digital consumption modes. Oui Pub has only accelerated this trend a little more.

A transition to digital advertising is not always successful

But this transition does not necessarily translate into a reduction in environmental impacts. Because digital technology is not exempt, and in particular generates greenhouse gas emissions. They are mainly linked to the manufacturing of digital devices (computers, smartphones, tablets, etc.) and therefore to the frequency with which they are renewed. They are also linked to the energy consumption involved in our digital activities (reading a video, viewing a web page, etc.) and all the necessary infrastructure behind them (servers, data centers, etc.). Between paper communication and digital communication, the impacts are thus distributed differently, notes the government report which considers the parameters too variable to be able to conclude that one medium is always more virtuous than the other. Whether digital or paper, the report calls on advertisers to seek sobriety and eco-design commercial campaigns.

Any disappointed with Oui Pub?

The other side of this transition from paper to digital advertising is that it leaves out a whole section of consumers who are far from digital. If, in the pilot territories, 44% of residents say they are satisfied with the experiment and 63% say they are satisfied with its extension to all of France, Oui Pub has still caused some dissatisfaction. Particularly among those who have put the sticker on their mailbox. Some have nevertheless regretted a drop in printed advertising even though they consider these leaflets important for saving money in an inflationary context, points out the government report.