Rik Mayall stars in green TV campaign for Devon council

After her bags split, Mayall turns up outside the supermarket in a green van and performs a surgical procedure on her shopping, which involves moving her groceries from plastic bags to reuseable cotton bags.

The ad ends with a voiceover intoning, "Don't let Devon lose her looks, carry a bag". It was created by Exeter-based RH Advertising, which retained the 'Don't let Devon go to waste' account after a pitch in April.

Liz Poulter, senior waste manager at Devon County Council, said: "Plastic bags are a real problem. We dump over 200m of them in landfill in Devon every year and they take about 500 years to biodegrade."

Geoff Dodd, creative director at RH Advertising, said: "We were so pleased that Rik Mayall offered to appear in the ad; he loved the script and the message we are promoting."

The campaign will run on bus sides and posters, as well as point-of-sale activity encouraging shoppers to cut down on their excess packaging.

In October a small road show will tour Devon supermarkets to promote reusable cotton bags. The campaign first kicked off in October 2002.

You can watch ad here.