Multinational electronics corporation Toshiba has abandoned a nationwide no-printing campaign before the ink dried on the original announcement. Announced on June 4, Toshiba Corporation’s “National No-Print Day” has been canceled following pressure from the Printing Industries of America (PIA) and industry members.
In a letter to members, PIA president and CEO Michael Makin revealed that Toshiba America Business Solutions, creators of National No Print Day, has decided not to go forward with the event. Makin detailed a conversation he had with Toshiba USA representatives yesterday.
“Last evening I had a lengthy conversation with Bill Melo, Toshiba USA’s senior vice president of marketing, services and solutions regarding its ill-conceived initiative,” he wrote. “Mr. Melo was quite “concerned” with how the campaign had been received by the commercial printing industry and stressed it was never the intent of his company to disenfranchise or insult our industry.”
The campaign, created as part of Toshiba’s sustainability initiatives, linked printing to overloaded landfills and pollutants, and asked all businesses to “raise awareness of the role of paper in the workplace by not printing at all for one day.” Toshiba did not make a distinction between printing in office buildings and professional printers, a major point of contention with PIA according to Makin.
In his letter, Makin explained that following his conversation with Melo, Toshiba agreed “to going back to the drawing board and assured me the promotion on its website will be removed and that any re-launch of a campaign directed at office waste will explicitly explain that this in no way references the legitimate commercial printing industry and its importance to the American economy.”
The website for National No-Print Day, which was scheduled for Oct. 23, has been blank since Thursday morning. Toshiba USA has not issued a statement on the cancelation at this time.
