WOSU Radio, Columbus, Ohio, USA, reported this week that because of e-mail, e-vites, and e-readers, the paper industry now says per capita use of its printing and writing products has dropped 46% since the year 2000. This means that paper manufacturers need consumers back. WOSU noted that in 2015 the industry will be spending tens of millions of dollars funding a campaign to demonstrate how paper use is still relevant in an increasingly digital society. 

Few would disagree that paper gets a bad rap. Signature lines on e-mails often remind us to "Save a tree. Don’t print." Bill collectors encourage us to "Go paperless. Go green." And when we don’t, we feel guilty.

"That guilt is definitely an issue we have to deal with" said Christian Fischer, EVP of Georgia-Pacific’s packaging segment. Fischer says dealing with the decline means trying to change paper’s perception "on the margin."  In other words, reach those who haven’t already made up their minds on the often mythological or highly exaggerated "evils of paper".   

For decades, WOSU's report explained, there's been an ever-smaller crowd, causing paper manufacturing plants to close and leading to industry consolidation. As one analyst puts it, the printing and writing paper industry has been in the hospital for a long time. At this point, there’s nothing left to do but sign its discharge papers and hand over a prescription.

But now there’s a twist. The medicine is for consumers and the drug regimen is a campaign called "How Life Unfolds." The industry’s trade group, the Paper and Packaging Board, is set to spend $170-million on commercials and other marketing over the next seven years, said Executive Director Mary Anne Hansan.

"What we really want to do with this campaign is reinforce how our products connect people with what’s important in their life [sic] — whether it’s connections with people, whether it’s getting their personal goals accomplished," said Hansan.

That’s the premise of the campaign’s first commercial, called "Letters to Dad." It features a young boy who writes to his father overseas via paper airplanes. He then sails them across his backyard fence. While he hopes they’re getting to dad, the next-door neighbor collects them.

Then, one day, the paper airplanes suddenly fly back into the boy’s yard. This time, though, they carry his father’s responses. The 30-second plug tugs at the heartstrings. The reporter then asks the question the industry is waiting to get answered. Will this be enough to change the public’s declining view of the product?

"They have a tough, uphill climb," noted University of Georgia advertising professor Karen King. King said the commercial’s emotional appeal is effective, however.

"I actually think the campaign does a pretty good job of making you realize there are certain things only paper can do," she added.

For example, announcing a once-in-a-lifetime event, Atlanta, Ga., resident Anne Wilson, 25, is in the early stages of planning her wedding. She said she never considered sending e-vites that cost nearly nothing. "We’re inviting all of our friends across the country, so I’d like it to be personal," said Wilson.

To her, paper was the only option, which is why she’s brought her $2,000 budget to Paper Daisies, a specialty stationery company in Atlanta. For that amount of cash, she’ll get "save the date" notices, "thank you" cards, and everything in between. But the bride gets more than just paper, added Lisa Hladish, who owns Paper Daisies.

"When you sit down and send an invitation out, you have to think about it," Hladish explained. "I think there is an emotional connection with paper."

The Paper and Packaging Board doesn’t expect its campaign will foster that type of emotional connection with, say, your utility bill. It doesn’t have to. Fisher, the executive with Georgia-Pacific, said to the station that if the campaign moves the needle just one third of one percent in the industry’s favor, it will double the money being spent on the advertisements.