GiffGaff makes ‘urgent call’ to recirculate old phones

Depicting dusty devices coming to life from their resting places deep inside drawers and lying on shelves, the 30-second piece illustrates the scale of the problem by depicting a city drowning in a cacophony of ringtones.

Inviting viewers to ’let your old phones ring again’, the campaign invites people to trade in their old phones with GiffGaff or drop them off at a local recycling point for the good of the planet and your wallet.

The campaign was sparked by a YouGov survey of 2,000 UK adults, with 67% admitting to owning one or more redundant mobile phone. More pertinently, the issue could come back to bite brands, with 54% of respondents feeling that the companies responsible should do more to tackle e-waste, compared to 68% who hold the government accountable.

The most eye-catching result was that 72% of the British public have no idea what e-waste is, prompting GiffGaff chief Ash Schofield to say: “Our research has found that the nation needs to be better educated about the issue of e-waste and why it’s important for our planet and our future. As the mobile network run by you, it’s important we equip people with the know-how to sustainably dispose of their old phones so that together we can work towards tackling the issue of e-waste.”

Spreading this message as far and wide as possible GiffGaff will carry the campaign across digital, out-of-home, radio and social media.

The circular economy messaging follows a 2020 partnership with LadBible in which GiffGaff urged the public to ’check your drawers’ for unused phones following revelations that 55m such devices were lying unused around the country.