My Straw: redesigning a familiar drinking ritual

Read the campaign story

A long-established product can be familiar enough to disappear into routine. Binggrae’s My Straw campaign focused on an object already associated with drinking its banana-flavoured milk: the straw. Instead of changing the bottle or inventing a new product benefit, INNORED created unusual ways to perform the same recognisable ritual. The editorial reading is that an accessory can provide novelty while allowing the core product’s identity to remain intact.

The agency’s portfolio identifies the campaign as a 2017 project. Contemporary Korean reporting states that online videos began on 10 July and presented several unconventional straw designs. These included a shared heart-shaped version, a larger-format straw and theatrical devices resembling other familiar objects. The designs were presented through comic demonstrations. Their resemblance to medical equipment or emergency tools was visual humour, not evidence of therapeutic effects, improved hydration or a safe recommendation to imitate every depicted drinking posture.

The launch centred on online video, with individual films giving each straw a distinct situation. Later trade coverage described the designs and their role in making the familiar drink relevant to younger adults. The campaign’s creative products and social content formed one system rather than a collection of unrelated product launches. This study does not infer a complete retail distribution plan from the existence of promotional videos or assume that every design was available to all consumers.

The mechanism starts with a recognisable behaviour and alters one component. Because viewers already understand the bottle-and-straw ritual, the unusual accessory needs little explanation. Each variation can create a different image while still returning attention to the same drink. That is an editorial interpretation, not proof that novelty converted into sustained preference. A surprising accessory may attract collectors or viewers without changing ordinary consumption, and disposable materials can create an environmental cost that a cheerful film leaves outside the frame.

The sources establish the agency, date and execution but do not independently isolate sales effects. They also do not substantiate health-related impressions suggested by some comic scenes. For practitioners, the useful idea is to examine how people already use a product before redesigning an incidental touchpoint. A smaller team should prototype with safe, reusable, non-food-contact materials first, test recognisability and practicality, and avoid making the accessory more memorable than the product or encouraging an unsafe imitation of the original spectacle.

Observe the existing ritual

Identify a real repeated behaviour before adding a novelty accessory.

Separate visual jokes from benefits

Do not let medical-looking props imply treatment or recovery.

Check material and safety costs

Evaluate reuse, hygiene and practical handling before producing physical items.

A small test for another brief

Prototype a reusable non-food accessory for a familiar desk tool.

Measure clarity, practicality and product attribution.

Stop if the concept requires unsafe handling or unnecessary disposable production.

• Observe how consenting adults use the tool and choose one harmless touchpoint.
• Make paper mock-ups of two original accessory ideas.
• Test whether people recognise the tool and understand the variation.