Paper is trying to reverse the pixels-induced decline but it must reinvent itself

Part of the ad campaign put together by the Paper and Packaging Board

Paper isn’t trying to take down pixels, reports The Washingon Post, but it wants a share of the market in memories, memos and the people-to-people connection enhanced by this 2,000-year-old pulp product.

I can’t imagine how this will succeed unless paper reinvents itself totally. But more about that later. First, to the ad campaign to promote the desire to use paper.

Apparently, the paper and packaging industry, which is still worth $132 billion but suffers a five per cent loss every year, has launched a multimillion-dollar ad campaign to fight the decline. The campaign, put together the Paper and Packaging Board, is supported by the US Department of Agriculture.

Mary Anne Hanson of the Board says it’s about “reaffirm(ing) the desire to use paper”.

What does that mean?

Or this.

“We are trying to show people how paper can serve them in their lives.”

That last statement came from John D. Williams, chief executive officer of Domtar, a large producer of office and writing paper. It underlines the problems of trying to reaffirm the place of paper in our lives.

As something in libraries and museums and under glass cases perhaps?

But probably not as a growth industry. Unless it were reinvented as a ‘green’ product that could erase writing (digitally perhaps) and were totally reusable?

Don’t get me wrong. There’s still lots of room for paper in our lives. Toilet paper. Kitchen towels. Kleenex tissue. Packing cartons. Airport luggage tags. Airline boarding passes. Passports. Just not as a resource for regular writing right now, but that could change.