In a bid to encourage people to think twice about using plastic bags, Vancouver shop East Meets West started a campaign that has unfortunately backfired on them.

East Meets West printed 1,000 bags with embarrassing slogans such as “Dr. Toew’s Wart Ointment Wholesale” and  “Into the Weird Adult Video Emporium”. The idea was to encourage shoppers to think twice about getting a plastic bag. And even though the idea seems like a good one, instead shoppers were collecting the bags. Some people were also commenting on social media that it was counter-intuitive to use plastic bags in a campaign to discourage the use of plastic bags.

East Meets West shop owner, David Lee Kwen has admitted, “Some of the customers want to collect them because they love the idea of it,” he said.

Kwen also sells canvas tote bags, which he does plan to transfer the slogans to.  “It’s a double-edged sword. We wanted to address an issue, but we’ve also made something popular, so it’s turned out great.”

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