Metsä Tissue – the largest publisher of poetry in Finland?

Toilet rolls have been decorated with all manner of different pictures, with portraits of unpopular politicians springing readily to mind. The Metsä Tissue company has a record of sorts in this field – though only as regards the Lambi brand sold in Finland.

Metsä Tissue decided to print love poems on its tissue products. The campaign proved popular and has now reached its fifth year.

During these years love has been approached from many angles, including descriptions of small acts of love and short life stories. Thoughts of what love feels like and little big stories of love have been printed on tissue paper.

During the spring of 2016 the company collected declarations of love left unexpressed, addressed to loved ones past or present.

The request for submissions was directed to all Finns through the social media. This summer a selection of 52 poems were published.

”I imagine we’re among the major publishers of poetry in Finland,” says Hanna Jokitöyrä, brand manager of Metsä Tissue’s Lambi product family.

The ways of using toilet paper and what people expect of it are very culture-sensitive, and the markets of all tissue products tend not to cover large geographical areas – not least because transporting tissues over long distances is not profitable, due to their bulk.

Softness is very important especially for Nordic consumers. Metsä Tissue researches the softness of its tissues at the CCT research centre in Germany.

The challenge with softness is that you cannot increase it at the expense of strength, which is another very important property of tissues.