Subject Code: COMM2376

Subject Name: Specialist Public Relations

Location where you study: RMIT Vietnam – SGS

Title of Assignment: Major assignment – the brief

Student Names: S3192882_ Nguyen Thi Ngoc Minh

Learning Facilitator in charge: Lukas Parker

Assignment due date: 22 September 2009

Date of Submission: 22 September 2009

Late Submission Approval N/A

Number of pages including this one: 8

Word Count: 2003 words

(Main Content)

1
SUPER B CORPORATION
MB Soya Product Company

PR Agency: e-social.net

2
Part A: The Brief
The first impression when accessing the web page of MB brand name at www.mrbean.com.vn is the
chain of sounds: lots of beans falling into the base of hot water, fruit mixer working, milk filtered
through cheese cloth by wringing, and swallowing milk with enjoyment and desire respectively. To end
this audio clip, a funny voice speaks out “MB ean” word. The clip is available at the right hand on the
web page for the audience to download. Moreover, it also appears at some websites for ringing tone for
example ringingtone.com or the famous social networking - youtube.com with the logo and the link to
the website of MB brand name nearby.

There is a game related to MB soya products for the audience. A list of products’ names such as
Chendol Soya Milk, Pearly Bandung Soya Milk or Beancurd with Tang Yuan, Gingko Nut Beancurd or
Grass Jelly Bowl, Blueberry Pancake, Tuna Pancake…etc. and images of relevant food and beverage in
an arbitrary order will be provided after the audience click on Game icon. The task is to match the name
of product with the relating image. Each turn needs to gain seven over eight points to win this game. In
this case, the player will have one credit in his/her MB membership account and have a chance to
receive a 10% discount at once for any product or MB merchandise if he/she accumulates ten credits.
As a result, under the Product icon, the menu appears with only the pictures and descriptions of the
dishes, without particular names. In case the audience skips the game and reaches to Product part but
they want to know the products’ names, a guide is there for the audience to join in the game.

For the rest of the webpage, five hyperlinks help the audience to reach the information they desire:
About Us, Our products, Events and Promotions, Bean Up your Day (wallpapers and updated member
list), Locations (linking with Google Map to provide the service of direction to the nearest stores).

Part B: proposal
1. Executive summary

The Reducing Plastic Bag Usage interactive project of MB brand name will be interpreted in this
proposal according to three main parts: aim(s), objectives and recommendations.

With the purpose to make online social networking members speak out their voices towards
environmental issue today, this interactive project aims to seek the consensus among the majority of
3
 online social networking members about reducing plastic bags and replacing by recycled paper ones.
In particular, it is expected to attract 5,000 fans, 2000 turns of voting, 500 “ less plastic bags” audio
clips and attentions of environmental organizations. To make this proposal come real, there should
be 5 active members employed with good communication skills and basic environment knowledge
to be in charge of replying as well as making relations with others. Moreover, to cooperate with
ringing tone download websites and student clubs is one of the suggestions.

2. Aim(s):

For reducing plastic bag usage in daily shopping to seek the consensus among the majority of
online social networking members.

MB facebook account will be the main tool for surveying the attitude of this social network’s
members towards this environmental issue as well as the propaganda beneath to encourage them in
terms of cutting down the plastic bags when possible. In details, a voting program will be set up to
raise the question: Are you ready to say NO with plastic bags when shopping? And then, the voters
can guess the number of participants each week after voting. The result will be announced at 5pm
every Saturday and the winner is the person who has the most nearly accurate answer. Especially,
the facebook members who pass this voting to 100 of their friends this week will receive the
information about the number of participants at 5pm this Friday. If they introduce it with more than
200 friends, the clue will reach them at 3pm on Saturday. There are two forms of awarding: a
discount at MB stores or unreal amount of money added to their account.

Moreover, a contest of parodying the sentence “less plastic bags” will be hold on the facebook for all
who want to express themselves with a funny voice. Participants could upload their own “less plastic
bag” audio clips which do not exceed 30 seconds on MB facebook for others to nominate.

3. Objectives

4
 3.1. To have 5,000 fans after the first month of launching MB facebook to arouse the spirit of the
propaganda

3.2. To reach 2,000 turns of voting in the first week to speak out their attitudes towards plastic bag
issue.

3.3. To attract the attention of environment organizations such as non-government organizations and
university clubs to join in the propaganda via voting system and discussion board.

3.4. To receive 500 audio clips posted on the facebook to excite the world of multimedia with the
messages of being friendly with environment.

4. Recommendations

4.1. To employ 5 active members, who have strong knowledge about environment issues as well as
professional research and communication skills.

• They will firstly expand the number of fans for MB account.

• They are also the first people who introduce the voting for their friends and inspire them
to spread it further.

• These people are in charge of replying any questions about related topic in discussion
board on as well as raising the concern when no one else asks for. From that, the account
will keep going on.

• Moreover, they will create relationships with environment NGO’s and student clubs by
commenting and exchanging ideas at the basic stage.

4.2. To deal with ringingtone.com and other relevant websites to popularize those special sound
clips

5
 It is expected that the audio clips from the contest will be exposed highly to the audience who
want to download ringing tone from those websites. And the links to those websites are also on
MB facebook. It turned out to be two-way beneficial relations.

4.3. To cooperate with environment club at universities such as RMIT Vietnam, Univeristy of
Science, University of Engineering… in student projects for example, Swapping fair of RMIT
Vietnam environment club or Cleaning up District 5 of Green group at University of Science.

This is the direct way to reach a target audience who are 18-29 years old, familiar with social
networking sites and love the Earth. Both sides will help each other to propaganda their own
messages to community.

6
Part C: Position Paper
Each year, there are about 100, 000 turtles, dolphins and other marine creatures die of plastic bags. The
image of a dead turtle with a plastic bag hanging from its mouth isn't a pleasant sight but mistaking
plastic bags for food is commonplace amongst marine animals. Although the sea seems to be the last
destination of this kind of bag, its negative influence appears along the way plastic products thrown into
the environment. In many countries, it is believed that plastic bags should be banned and replaced by
recycled paper ones.

Perceiving the serious statement of the Earth today, the position of our company towards this
environmental issue is to support the argument that shopping centers and supermarkets in Vietnam now
should shift to use recycled paper bags instead of plastic ones and citizens should actively reduce plastic
bag usage rate by refusing to take them if possible.

It is normal that some counter-arguments will be raised among society. For example, the cost of
recycling paper for packaging is high, so we need to pay more for our acquisitions of the main
products; plastic bag is extremely convenient in daily life and seems to be essential because its physical
elasticity is very high; and last but not least, a large area of forest will be exploited for paper if paper
bag become a popular product of recycled paper.

Firstly, in case of higher payment for products packaged by recycled paper, it is estimated that this cost
is not significant in comparison to the products’ price (1% according to World Resources Institute).

Next, although plastic bag is everywhere today, we had had a normal life without this kind of carrier
before 1977. Moreover, in Bangladesh, Zanzibar, and Taiwan they haven't had plastic bags for years and
are bearing up just fine. Or in America, from March 2007, the government of San Francisco launched
the law of banning plastic bags in big supermarkets.

Thirdly, in terms of providing paper to make those bags, it is assumed to have two ways: to plant more
trees and to cut down the unnecessary paper usage for other purposes such as printing and burning. It is
true that material of paper bags is more limited than one of plastic, yet the cost of letting this tough kind
of bag degrade underground is over that benefit.

7
From perspective of a food and beverage company, MB brand name argues for reducing plastic bag
usage and shifting to paper one due to three reasons.

Firstly, plastic bags indirectly affect the users via the components of packages. In fact, this kind of bags
consists of sulfur in the composition because they are produced from pure petroleum. Users could be
intoxicated when using them to cover both fresh and cooked food. In addition, according to Ho Chi
Minh Recycling Fund (2006), the process of recycling plastic bags brings more serious threats because
most of them are made from garbage and its technique is undertaken manually without safety concerns.
During the procedure, several chemicals are added to enhance products’ elasticity and long-lasting
usability. All of them lead to their low hygiene and high risk for diseases.

Next, according to Stockholm Environment Institute (2005), there are more than 700 billion plastic bags
discarded into the Earth each year. Or about one billion items are used worldwide per second whereas
only 0.6 to 1% of them have chances to be reused. It costs from 500 to 1000 years for plastic bag to
degrade without external forces such as enzymes and heating energy. Basically plastic bags are not
biodegradable. Indeed, they do not decompose and remain as such for a long time, so they blocks the
rain water getting percolated into land and instead makes to run on the surface of land causing erosion of
soil and pollution of water. Besides, plastic bag is also the killer of animals. Animals and sea creatures
are hurt and killed every day by discarded plastic bags as plastic clogs their intestines and leads to slow
starvation. Others become entangled in plastic bags and drown. If plastic bags are burnt, they emit
hazardous gases, especially hydrogen chloride and sulfur dioxide which cause acid rain.

Thirdly, no country should step aside the ban against the wide use of plastic bags. It is true that more and
more countries all over the World take action with ‘say NO to plastic bags’ and it becomes an essential
part of their sustainable development strategy. In particular, Bangladesh (2005), Taiwan (2003), India
(2005), Somalia (2005) banned plastic bag usage. Some nations such as Denmark (1994), German
(2002), Ireland and Switzerland (2002) impose considerably higher tax for this kind of product.
Recently, one year after China government enacted the plastic bag ban (2008), this kind of carrier’s
usage at supermarkets was down by an average 66 percent, according to a survey released Wednesday
by the China Chain Store and Franchise Association. According to China Daily’s interview, for the 26-
year-old, saving money and doing something for a clean environment are both very fashionable. It

8
turned out that the citizens will follow the law once the government has the positive and realistic policy
to protect environment.

To conclude, MB brand name argues for shifting to use paper bags when shopping in Vietnam.
Moreover, it is time for the citizens to be conscious of their important role in cutting down the number
of plastic bags when possible. There will be an interactive project on social networking site- facebook
for MB brand name to encourage the youth against the wide use of plastic bags (more details in
recommendation parts of the proposal).

Reference list
1. World Resources Institute, ‘Information about plastic bags for past 3 years’, viewed 21 September
2009, http://earthtrends.wri.org/

2. Climate & Energy 2000, Stockholm Environment Institute, viewed 22 September 2009,
http://www.sei.se/

3. Xinhua, G 2009, ‘Public awareness improves a year after plastic bag ban’, China Daily ,viewed 22
September 2009, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-05/23/content_7936249.htm