10,000 Lettuces Wrapped in a Famous Actor’s Face to Prevent Waste
In some supermarkets in Japan, customers were met with the face of an actor in the vegetable aisle. Special packaging featuring the intense gaze of Tatsuya Fujiwara was wrapped around 10,000 heads of lettuce. While at first glance it may seem like an unusual advertising campaign, the underlying purpose is to reduce food waste, which tends to increase during the summer months.
The famous actor's gaze covered a field of 10,000 lettuces.
A campaign prepared by Ajinomoto and JA ZenNoh Nagano kicked off on July 21, 2026. Some 10,000 lettuces, shipped to select markets in the capital region and the Kansai area, were packaged in transparent films imprinted with the face of actor Tatsuya Fujiwara. The plan was to sell these limited-edition items until stocks ran out.
Fujiwara is particularly known to international audiences for his roles in Battle Royale and the live-action Death Note films. His intense and captivating facial expression was positioned at the center of the packaging, making it noticeable even from a distance in the vegetable aisle. The campaign was cleverly named 'Katteku Lettuce,' a play on words in Japanese that combines the phrases 'Please buy' and 'lettuce.'
Of the respondents, 65.6% reported discarding lettuce.
The research conducted prior to the campaign revealed that 65.6% of consumers buying lettuce in the summer months were unable to finish the entire vegetable, discarding a portion of it. A significant 58.3% of participants lamented the rapid spoilage of lettuce, while 46.2% complained about the lack of diverse uses for it.
A whopping 78.4% of those surveyed primarily consumed lettuce in salads. The fact that most people were unsure of what else to prepare beyond salads made it challenging to consume an entire head of lettuce in a timely manner. The packaging featuring the face of a famous actor was designed with the aim of drawing customers' attention to the product and encouraging them to explore different recipes.
Seven different recipes were placed on the back of the packaging.
The wrap around the lettuce doesn't just feature Fujiwara's face. On the back of the packaging, there's a QR code that directs users to a page titled 'Instant Lettuce Vanishing Recipes'. The page offers seven recipes including cold rice with lettuce, mixed noodles, and grilled lettuce with garlic.
The campaign drew attention with its viral packaging, making the message about food waste far more visible than a traditional awareness campaign would.
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