Using the Power of Communication to End Hunger! Dentsu Inc. No-Peko Lab

Dentsu Inc.'s "No Peko Lab" aims to solve all issues related to "children and food." This lab targets solving various challenges in a fun, large-scale, and sustainable way. It does this through ideas that make people feel personally invested, combined with collaborations between companies, everyone in society, and food volunteer organizations worldwide.

Advertising is the "power to communicate."
Since joining the company, everyone across all divisions has cultivated diverse forms of this "power to communicate." In the coming era, all individuals possessing this power will unite to actively communicate every method for making society better, collectively driving change.

The No-Peko (No, Hungry!) Lab launched in 2019 with a sense of mission: precisely because the themes of "hunger and poverty" are the most difficult to communicate—and exist at the opposite end of the spectrum from physical profit—they are the very challenges our company, with its power to communicate, should take on.

Furthermore, the work of "advertising creative"—which unilaterally reaches a wide audience—carries significant responsibility, as we act as spokespersons for companies. While it's fundamental to devise engaging mechanisms and compelling expressions that make people like the company or product, we must also exercise imagination beyond measure—more than anyone else—to ensure the concept doesn't hurt anyone or cause sorrow. Only when this is achieved can we truly reach the hearts of many in today's world. This No-Peko Lab was born from the desire to use that power precisely for those most in need.

How to engage society, players, companies, and organizations in tackling difficult challenges

For people to agree with your vision and take action, there must be benefits for everyone.

This is why the shift from MDGs to SDGs occurred—to establish sustainable activity goals rather than unilaterally burdening companies. Similarly, even when people recognize something is good, it's often difficult to motivate them to act.

For society at large, the key is transforming "good things" into "fun things" – creating activities people can't help but want to join. For players, we focus on creating compelling mechanisms that leverage their unique skills and expertise, transcending individual job roles, and we rely on their power to make this happen.

For companies, it's crucial to structure initiatives as SDGs that tangibly contribute to their bottom line. For example, we propose promotional campaigns for products that also combat food waste, or educational programs for children that cultivate future customers and fans—all designed to enhance product and corporate value.

Ultimately, every initiative is designed to contribute to donations for organizations related to "children and food" (※) and to help solve these issues.

※ Examples include the Musubie Children's Cafeteria Support Center and the WFP (World Food Programme)

September 9th is Goo Goo Day every year. This year, it's "Goo Goo Day♪ Fun Food Education! The Yami Yami Meal Gathering"

We have designated September 9th as "Goo-Goo Day," a day to think about and take fun action on "children and food," and the entire month as "Goo-Goo Month" (officially recognized by the Japan Anniversary Association).

Leading up to World Food Day on October 16th, No Peko Lab is promoting activities that engage organizations, companies, and society as a whole in a fun way, using this easy-to-remember Goo Goo Day as a pillar, with ideas to help more people feel personally connected to the cause.

This year, we invited Sakurai-sensei and her child, who run "Gohanya Paroru" in Aoyama, Tokyo as cooking advisors. We released a food education video featuring six children "thinking for themselves and cooking" to show how to deliciously and enjoyably transform leftovers from the refrigerator. This initiative aims to reduce food waste in a fun way while fostering creativity—empowering children to carve out their own futures through food. The video is titled "Goo Goo Day♪ Fun Food Education! The Yami Yami Meal Club." "Yami Yami" is a coined term combining "yummy" (meaning delicious) and "yami nabe" (a potluck where anything goes).

Starting with giving nicknames to leftover ingredients to foster affection, the children themselves selected seasonings and transformed leftover ingredients chosen by roulette into delicious dishes. Additionally, from September 9th for three days, an event was held at a kitchen booth in Ebisu, where Yamiyami meals made with the teacher's magic recipes for turning leftovers into delicious dishes, along with mini recipe memos, were distributed for free.

Staff List
Planning & Production: Dentsu Inc. Nopeco Lab
Scriptwriting + Editing + Lyrics + Composition + Vocals + Hosting: Kinuko Honma
Filming + Arrangement + Direction: Daigo Sato
AD + D (Characters/Posters): Moe Furuya
D (Posters/Event): Risa Horikoshi
Naming Ideas (e.g., Yamiyami Rice) + PR: Takayuki Fukushima
Event Production + PR + Host: Kobayashi Marina
Nopeco Lab Observers: Shinichi Fukusato, Eita Nakajima
Culinary Advisors: Emiko Sakurai, Mio Sakurai (Aoyama Gohanya Parol)
Yamiyami Research Team Members: Kurumi Tokobuchi, Miori Sato, Alex Tsutsu,
Rei Maeda, Tomoki Urabe, Yuma Naka (Jewelry Kids Promotion)
Special Thanks: Mina Ito

Reducing food waste at home can help reduce global hunger??

Discarding and incinerating food requires significant fuel, and the resulting carbon dioxide emissions contribute to global warming. Warming causes extreme weather, leading to crop failures and creating a vicious cycle where hunger and poverty spread in many countries where people depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.

By each of us reducing food waste, we can not only be kinder to our household budgets and the environment, but also contribute to reducing global hunger. This mechanism, proposed by No Peko Lab, was featured in the Yomiuri Shimbun last year. Considering the current trend of increased home cooking during the pandemic, NoPeco Lab designed this "food education project" with a focus on children's creativity. The goal is to help the next generation engage with food loss prevention in a fun and personal way.

Announcements for this video release and the free distribution event for Yamiyami Rice and mini-recipes were published on SNS, Dentsu Inc. News, Adtai, Ebisu Newspaper, and with the cooperation of magazine publishers, also on the inside back cover of the September 8th issue of Weekly Shincho. Additionally, lab members distributed 200 flyers in the vicinity of the venue and visited nearby elementary schools to discuss posting event posters.

Thanks to everyone, we welcomed many visitors—including the children and parents from Kakesuka Elementary School and Rinsui Elementary School who kindly displayed our posters, university students and staff interested in food education, local residents, and people who simply wandered in after seeing the posters.

We were deeply touched by children who came every day to donate multiple times, and one child even brought a thank-you note the next day saying, "It was delicious! I can eat ginger now, even though I used to dislike it." We distributed far more Yamiyami meals and mini-recipes than planned. The teacher's book and Yamiyami Parol Sauce sold out completely. All proceeds, including donations from the rice ball-shaped donation box, were donated to the WFP.

Collaboration with House Foods Group begins!

Furthermore, we received a collaboration offer from the House Foods Group, which has long been committed to tackling food loss. We are creating their children's food loss prevention content. Through this collaboration, we aim to build a new fan base and future customer base for the House Foods Group. A partnership with the NPO Hunger Free World (HFW), which strives for a world without hunger, has also been formed.

Aiming for the 2030 SDGs, we want to energize this movement with companies across Japan, including the House Foods Group, and people worldwide, to significantly reduce food loss in a fun way. We also plan to develop enjoyable food education classes in collaboration with various organizations and companies, including schools.

Let's work together to make the world No-Peko!

Since 2019, we've been proposing initiatives to various companies, sometimes involving Media Services / Newspaper Division. Even when corporate sponsorship wasn't possible, we never gave up on what we believed needed to be done. This persistence has built trust, and we truly feel the cooperation and dedication of so many people everywhere is starting to bear fruit.

Next year's Goo Goo Month, we want to make it an even more fun and larger-scale activity together with everyone who has read this article. Let's not make this a special activity only for a select few, but rather an everyday activity for everyone. Please join us in bringing everyone's power together, enjoyably!