How a Mistake Became an Opportunity

By Diane Metzger, Brand Manager

Last year on World Oceans Day, Butterfly Pavilion partnered with Whole Foods to provide the community with free canvas bags to encourage the reduction of single use plastic. More than 8 million tons of plastic are dumped into our oceans every year, 50% of which was manufactured for single use.

This waste is catastrophic for ocean animals and habitat, entangling marine life and contributing to the destruction of coral reefs. Here at Butterfly Pavilion, we believe in the power of small actions to make a big impact. By giving out reusable bags we saw an opportunity to educate the community on the ways in which each of us can conserve the ocean every day, even from our land-locked state of Colorado.

But upon delivery to our zoo – we couldn’t believe it – all 700 bags included our name, but it was misspelled.

Not wanting to showcase the mistake, while also not wanting to throw them away, we left the bags to hibernate in a storage closet. A year went by and it seemed as though they would never be put to good use. When planning this year’s World Oceans Day celebration, the question of what do with the bags came up again. After some brainstorming, we realized that all we needed to do was look to our very own message to find the answer. Reduce waste, conserve our world.

Rather than throwing these bags away, we saw an opportunity to tell the story of our mistake and help the community re-imagine the use of items one would usually call “trash.” We’re all human. We’re not perfect. But we do have the power to make choices that are small, but impactful, for our community and the planet. This World Oceans Day, we’ll be handing out those canvas bags – misspelled name and all – to tell the story of how we’re walking-the-talk of conservation. These sustainably-made bags can still serve the purpose for which they were intended, helping us to limit the amount of waste we produce.

In the future, we’ll still giggle about the marketing faux pas, but we’ll feel good knowing that we shared something sturdy, useful and sustainable with our community. Visit us on June 8th from 9 am – 5 pm to grab your very own misspelled Butterfly Pavilion canvas bag and take action to conserve our oceans! Enjoy activities, live animals, special presentations and more, all included with General Admission.

Have questions? Email us at marketing@butterflies.org.