Stuck in a Trash Bin, Boy Refuses to Get Out

Appu is a young boy who, at a first glance, seems to be extremely stubborn: He won’t get out of a trash bin, simply driving his parents crazy. Moreover, he is so determined to stay in the bin that his apparently silly act keeps drawing neighbors’, pedestrians’, and even the press’ attention. So, what is going on? Why does this boy refuse to get out of the container or even give a reasonable explanation for this… game of his?

Actually, Appu finds himself in the trash bin not because he is playing games or because he doesn’t have something better to play with. So, don’t let yourselves be fooled by his “childish performance,” because acting in such a way requires a very mature way of thinking.

In India, thousands of tons of waste end up in landfills, rivers, and oceans every day. While progress has been made concerning waste management, more work needs to be done. Sure, most people have accepted the importance of sorting waste, yet they don’t consider it as being their responsibility. Except for Appu, the protagonist of Hindustan Unilever Limited‘s short film “The Bin Boy.” Built in line with HUL’s CSR initiative, where one of its commitments is to improve the health of our planet, the video, crafted with the help of Ogilvy Mumbai, shows that this is something that concerns us all. Yet, to better communicate the seriousness of the problem, HUL brought this responsibility to our doorsteps. Literally.

“Children are the strongest advocates of change in society and are also the strongest drivers,” says Sanjiv Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director, Hindustan Unilever Ltd. By choosing to share an environmental message as if it is coming from a young boy, whose protest garners a lot of the community’s attention in the video, HUL highlights the importance of segregating wet, dry, and hazardous waste separately, every day.

“The need for urgent action on the issue of waste segregation has never been greater. At HUL, we recognize our role in this context and have been working with leading agencies in the space and the Government to drive what is a simple, positive action that each of us could do. We work towards empowering communities to reach the goal of swachhata and a zero-waste circular economy,” continues Mehta, who believes that their initiative will determine people to act and direct their efforts towards creating a greener future.

Kainaz Karmakar & Harshad Rajadhyaksha, Chief Creative Officers, Ogilvy India, explain: “We needed to find a striking solution to make an unmissable point about the importance of waste segregation. While enough people have heard about the need to segregate, it is still a distant, global issue to most. To inspire action, we had to make the issue personal and do so in an exciting, entertaining way. That’s where we believe this visual disruption of a boy in a bin will capture people’s mind-space. We are also very happy with the way our film director, Buddy, has brought alive the story in such a fun, engaging way leading up to what the boy has to say; which people realize is no laughing matter after all.”

Check out the two-minute-long video below and see how Appu’s apparently insignificant act has a tremendous impact on his parents. Hopefully, he will inspire his mom and dad to take waste disposal seriously and turn the segregation of waste into a daily habit. And HUL only hopes that others will follow their example as well…