Bonds launched a recycled line by recycling 100 years of its own ads

Bonds, one of Australia's oldest fashion brands, created its first sustainable range, Re-Loved, made with up to 45% recycled material. A conventional launch would have contradicted the promise: new shoots, sets and travel are exactly the waste the range was built against.

Leo Burnett Melbourne created nothing new. The team re-loved 100 years of Bonds' most iconic advertising: old print ads became social posts, old TVCs became online films, and a model from the 1970s returned as the campaign's influencer — a full digital suite with almost no carbon footprint.

The campaign reached 18,262,757 people, and the re-loved influencer's Instagram post scored the highest positive sentiment of any organic Bonds post ever. Epica gave the work a Gold and a Silver in 2019.

Recycle the ads to launch the recycled range

The campaign's form proved the product's claim: a recycled range launched by recycled advertising is an argument the audience can see.

A century of brand heritage is free creative inventory — instantly recognizable and already produced.

Minimal new production kept the campaign's own carbon cost tiny, making the sustainability story hard to attack.

When the product's virtue is reuse, the campaign should embody it: recycling brand heritage cuts cost and carbon and makes the sustainability story self-evident — the medium shows it.

Re-Loved established Bonds' sustainability line, and the campaign became a reference for low-carbon launches; Epica recognized it with Gold and Silver in 2019.