Stop encouraging us to change phones "as often as we change tubes"

The Issue

O2 currently have an advertising campaign on the London Underground in which the main message is "Change phones as often as you change tubes".
At best, the wording of this advert is poorly thought out and at worst, it has been described by one observer as a marketing scheme which "promotes greed and needless materialism". According to O2's marketing, the company wants to be seen as moving towards sustainability but the advert contradicts this.
We urge O2 to stop this advertising campaign and instead promote their products using a more sustainable message. O2 is a large corporation and as such has a responsibility to stand by the supposedly green measures they list on their website. Their own marketing materials state that "We want to share information about the social and environmental impact of the products we sell, to help customers make the right decisions." We would like to see O2 take action and put this statement into practice. We believe O2 has taken positive steps towards sustainability in the past and can do so again by removing this advert which fosters an unsustainable culture of waste!

Please sign the petition - we want to gain as many signatures as possible before putting this in front of them!

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Stop O2 encouraging unsustainable consumer behaviourPetition Starter
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This petition had 111 supporters

The Issue

O2 currently have an advertising campaign on the London Underground in which the main message is "Change phones as often as you change tubes".
At best, the wording of this advert is poorly thought out and at worst, it has been described by one observer as a marketing scheme which "promotes greed and needless materialism". According to O2's marketing, the company wants to be seen as moving towards sustainability but the advert contradicts this.
We urge O2 to stop this advertising campaign and instead promote their products using a more sustainable message. O2 is a large corporation and as such has a responsibility to stand by the supposedly green measures they list on their website. Their own marketing materials state that "We want to share information about the social and environmental impact of the products we sell, to help customers make the right decisions." We would like to see O2 take action and put this statement into practice. We believe O2 has taken positive steps towards sustainability in the past and can do so again by removing this advert which fosters an unsustainable culture of waste!

Please sign the petition - we want to gain as many signatures as possible before putting this in front of them!

avatar of the starter
Stop O2 encouraging unsustainable consumer behaviourPetition Starter
Media enquiries

The Decision Makers

O2
O2
Responded
“Dear Mark, Elen, Jared, Anna, Christina, Mathilde, Jacqui, Ela, Norman, Andrew and everyone who’s signed or viewed this petition. My name is Bill Eyres and I am O2’s Head of Sustainability. I’d like to respond on behalf of O2 about our O2 Refresh tariff, the poster you’ve seen and our approach to sustainability. O2 Refresh, the product advertised in the poster you’ve seen, is a new tariff we’ve created in response to what our customers have been asking us for – more flexibility on what phones they can get and when they can get them. O2 Refresh does this by separating a standard contract into two parts – an Airtime Plan that covers minutes, texts and data, and a Phone Plan that covers how much you’re paying for a new handset. By paying off the Phone Plan, you’re able to get a new phone when you like. This is the point our poster addresses. However, it’s not the whole O2 Refresh story - O2 Refresh also rewards customers who keep their phone for longer with a reduced monthly bill. Customers on O2 Refresh are told exactly how much their phone costs and, as a result, can see exactly when they have paid it off. Once they have paid for their phone, their monthly bill is reduced immediately. The reduced bills continue as long as they keep their old phone. As it focuses on one key feature of the tariff, the poster you’ve seen doesn’t reference O2 Recycle, our recycling programme. We see O2 Recycle as an intrinsic part of the O2 Refresh campaign. We’ve been working with phone recycling partners since 2002 to ensure that unwanted phones are put to good use regardless of their age or condition. Customers who come into one of our stores or call to join O2 Refresh are given information about O2 Recycle and encouraged to recycle their old phones which can then go on to be reused or 100% recycled, meaning nothing goes to a landfill. The majority (around 85%) of such devices are refurbished for secondary use, see their lives extended significantly. Customers are paid top prices for their old mobiles. We've paid out over £30 million to customers so far and nine out of ten customers would recommend us to a friend. O2 strives to be a sustainable business and O2 Recycle is just part of our efforts. We also operate an Eco rating programme, which helps customers understand the sustainable credentials of a new phone, plus we were the first mobile operator to achieve the Carbon Trust Standard for carbon reduction. We’re sorry you weren’t happy with our poster, but we hope you can see that we take sustainability very seriously at O2. Our marketing materials are designed to be impactful so will never be able to feature all our key messages. This doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten them or aren’t taking our responsibilities seriously though – my team and I, as well as representatives across O2 will continue to make O2 a greener, more sustainable business. For more information on our sustainability activities, please visit our site at www.o2.co.uk/thinkbig or contact me directly at bill [dot] eyres [at] o2 [dot] com.”
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Petition created on 23 May 2013