Consumer goods manufacturer Unilever and charity Oxfam are to highlight the problem of food waste in a prime time TV advert this weekend.

Featuring a ‘Bright Future Speech’ delivered by 15-year-old ‘young leader’ Grace (pictured, above), the short film will air in the advert break of ITV’s show The X Factor in the hopes of inspiring those who view the film to ‘get involved by raising awareness, volunteering or supporting NGOs who work to tackle hunger’.

The advert follows on from research undertaken by Unilever and Oxfam’s UK Poverty Programme, which found that 75 per cent of people throw away food that could be eaten. According to the study, ‘Waste not, Want not’, the amount of food wasted could feed all of the UK householders suffering from ‘food poverty’, as one fifth of householders that find it difficult to live on their income said that they have borrowed money from family or friends to buy food.

As such, the advert will highlight the ‘paradox of food waste versus food poverty’ and mark the launch a new campaign against food waste, #ClearAPlate. This calls on members of the public to commit to reducing the amount of food they waste and posting pictures of ‘clear plates’ (free from leftover food) on social media as a sign of this commitment.

Unilever will also commit to providing 500,000 meals to families in need as part of the campaign.

The advert, the first that Unilever has commissioned to advertise its corporate umbrella brand on TV, forms part of Unilever’s Project Sunlight, which highlights sustainability issues.

It is one of eight films being aired on TV across Unilever’s five top markets, including the USA and Indonesia.

Unilever estimates that approximately 300 million people will view the adverts over the coming weeks.

‘Getting our shoppers to live more sustainably’

Jon Goldstone, Vice President of Brand Building for Foods and Refreshments at Unilever UK, who is leading the advertising push, said: “This is a truly exciting time in Unilever’s history – the public launch of our corporate brand and what we stand for. We’ve made good progress in sustainability since the launch of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan in 2010, but consumer behavioural change is still the most challenging area for us, so we hope that through this campaign we can get our shoppers on board, living more sustainably.

“Through our UK iteration of the Project Sunlight campaign, we are highlighting two very important issues: food waste and food poverty. However, we know that it’s not as simple as saying ‘give your leftover food to those in need’, but by talking about these two issues together, we hope people will think about their food waste in the context of people who cannot afford to eat properly.”

Goldstone went on to highlight some of the work that Unilever has been undertaking to reduce food waste, such as setting up 41 food banks with Oxfam since 2012 and creating its ‘industry-first’ mobile app Wise up on Waste (featured in Resource 77), which was developed in partnership with the Sustainable Restaurant Association to help chefs and caterers identify and reduce avoidable food waste.

Find out more about Unilever’s Project Sunlight.