Some great videos about the future of plastics, plus a serious complaint

This is a blog post with two sides. On one, it's sharing some excellent videos that highlight the future of plastics. But on the other, it's a nagging complaint that I have with the plastics industry.

How will plastics innovations shape the 21st century? College students tackled that question in this year's student video contest, sponsored by the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc.

The videos are flashy, professional looking and inspirational.

The winning entry came from three students at the Savannah College of Art and Design — Alireza Bidar, Mina Vali Zadeh and Reza Bidar. For their efforts, they win a paid trip to NPE 2015.

Washington-based SPI said their video, “The Future of Plastics,” envisions how the flexibility and versatility of plastics will shape the future.

Second place went to students at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, for a similarly themed entry: “Plastics: Shaping the Future.”

A team from Penn State Erie, Behrend College, won third place for “Impact of Plastics on Society.”

The second place team will receive a $5,000 prize, while third place gets $3,500.

According to SPI, the contest asked students to explore “Innovation in the 21st Century.” The submissions were judged by SPI's communications and marketing committee.

“The imagination and creativity that went into these videos shows that the plastics industry's reputation for technological advancement and innovation is in good hands,” SPI President and CEO Bill Carteaux said in a news release.

About that movie…

Now, about that complaint — it's a familiar one to anyone who's spent any time in the plastics industry.

Two (!) of the winning videos prominently featured the biggest cliché opening possible in plastics. Yep, that scene from The Graduate.

“I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? Plastics.”

I get it — the medium here is video, and that's the most famous mention of plastics in film history. And it's forward-looking quote, and this was a contest that's looking at plastics role in the future.

But let me remind everyone that the reference to plastics in The Graduate wasn't meant as brilliant career advice.

It was a joke.

Back in 1993, Dan Charnas, a then-Plastics News staff reporter and a fan of movies and the theater, wrote a really good column about the plastics industry's fascination with The Graduate. Unfortunately it was just ahead of the internet age, so I can't link to it — and college students doing videos about the benefits of plastics can't find it through Google.

So for everyone's benefit, here's a bit of what Dan had to say in his Feb. 1, 1993 column, which was headlined “Ben didn't get it, but neither do we.”

“… it is important to remember that this scene was a joke. It was scornful of plastics, and I have never been able to understand why plastics people gleefully cite this scene again and again.

“The screenwriters were exploiting plastics' poor image to establish how removed, in temperament and outlook, Braddock is from the expectations of his parents and their contemporaries.

“The joke accomplishes a great deal — we commiserate with Braddock and take on his discomfort with those around him, the well-to-do suburban burghers and housefraus, in less than a minute of screen time.”

Let's try again

I know we'll never excise references to The Graduate from plastics industry culture, and that's OK. It's a great movie. And the line is one of the most memorable in film history.

But let's keep the context of Buck Henry's script in mind. At least acknowledge that plastics were the butt of the joke!