The Best Thing You’ll Never Do
With province-wide litter rates up 21%, how could the Nova Scotia Department of Environment get litter prevention back on people’s minds?
21% - that’s how much litter in Nova Scotia increased from 2004 to 2008. Anecdotally, it could be said that Nova Scotians had moved onto sexier environmental issues such as greenhouse gas emissions and water conservation and had forgotten about environmental management 101 - don’t litter.
Research indicated that a campaign aimed at raising awareness about littering had to raise its profile as an issue, increase engagement and demonstrate that it was a problem resulting from many people’s small actions. To accomplish this, MT&L, together with the Department of Environment, developed the “Best Thing You’ll Never Do” campaign. We asked Nova Scotians to “Please Litter.” We showed them how it could be done and where it could be done to make the process of littering as simple as possible. The intent of the reverse-psychology campaign was, of course, to first secure attention, and second, get people thinking about their actions as well as those of others.
We also partnered with Wilsons Fuels, Tim Hortons and the Nova Scotia Automobile Dealers Association to help spread the message and drive people to the website where they could learn more and sign the pledge, promising to be a non-litterer.
Brain Power
- Social media
- Advertising (print, radio, out-of-home)
- Stakeholder engagement (private partnerships)
- Concept design and development
