Vanity Fair Napkins Urges Families To #TakeBackTheTable With Social Effort

Napkins aren’t the most glamorous items to market, lacking the conspicuous brand-loyal following enjoyed by some categories like consumer electronics. So the folks at Vanity Fair napkins, a division of Georgia-Pacific, are getting behind a social movement that’s important to those most likely to buy its products: moms and dads.

With #TakeBackTheTable, a social campaign centered around that hashtag and a microsite at TakeBackTheTable.org, the brand seeks to encourage the resurgence of that lost phenomenon: the family dinner. Deutsch was Vanity Fair’s agency partner on the campaign.

Citing statistics from recent studies, including its own national survey, Vanity Fair says 85 percent of parents regularly ate a meal at the table with their families growing up, but only 56 percent of parents do with their families today. If that doesn’t impact the use of napkins, consider that it also found that 30 percent of families eat meals away from the table, and 45 percent of respondents think dining rooms are on their way to extinction.

That’s important because not only are people apparently using fewer napkins, but they’re missing out on the benefits that family dinners have been proven to convey to children: healthier eating habits, less drug and alcohol abuse and better grades.

“Life is busy, and it’s more important than ever to take time to make meaningful connections,” said Dan Nirenberg, a director at Vanity Fair, in a statement. “We recognize the importance of family mealtime and are excited to empower the nation to commit to ‘Take Back the Table’ by providing families with the tools they need and getting people talking — and excited about — the dinner table again.”

Besides providing information on the benefits via its microsite and social channels, Vanity Fair is also providing tools to make the undertaking easier, such as a “conversation starter” tool that helps families ease into the unfamiliar waters of speaking to one another over a meal. The brand has also enlisted the help of nutritionist and family dinner advocate Leanne Ely of SavingDinner.com.

Hoping to spur an ice-bucket-challenge-like domino effect, the campaign encourages families to take a pledge to #TakeBackTheTable and make their own family video stating their commitment to the practice. That video, the brand instructs, should end with a challenge to another family — written on a napkin in the video — to take the pledge themselves. When the video is shared via social media, the challenged family should be tagged on the post.

To get the challenge started, Vanity Fair has partnered with blogs like I Can Teach My Child, sponsoring family dinner-related content on their sites and on social platforms.

Besides posting and sponsoring content on Facebook and Twitter, Vanity Fair is also engaging socially on Instagram and Pinterest.

About The Author

Pamela Parker

Pamela Parker is Research Director at Third Door Media's Content Studio, where she produces Martech Intelligence Reports and other in-depth content for digital marketers in conjunction with Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, MarTech Today and Digital Marketing Depot. Prior to taking on this role at TDM, she served as Content Manager, Senior Editor and Executive Features Editor. Parker is a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since its beginning. She's a former managing editor of ClickZ and has also worked on the business side helping independent publishers monetize their sites at Federated Media Publishing. Parker earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.