What Is Litter? PSA Campaign Educates Through Web, Grassroots
The Modern Brand has launched a grassroots and web campaign to educate young people in Jefferson County on what refuse constitutes litter and sign a promise not to contribute to the problem. Local and state agencies teamed with the environmental groups to support the campaign.
“The campaign consists of t-shirts that were handed out to pep clubs, key clubs, and athletes at high schools, a television spot that illustrates how litter builds up on the roadsides, a website with a pledge to stop littering, print ads for local papers, a myspace page that explains litter and the damage that it causes, and finally a set of testimonial interviews with high school students explaining why they don’t like litter,” explained Michael Bell, of The Modern Brand.
The campaign is supported by solid research. After several focus groups with young adults, the team realized that young people had been drilled for years not to “litter,” but they’d never been told what litter is.
The T-shirts may be the most interesting aspect of the campaign, each a different color with a label for a different type of trash. Bell and his team gave away the shirts at schools in hopes of generating dialogue among young people and starting a trend. The viral sharing feature on the home page is a nice touch as well, though it would be nice to see WhatIsLitter’s other friends.
On the web side, the grungy, recycled look of the campaign is appealing and appropriate, though some enhanced usability might be in order. A mute or volume control on the auto-playing video could be useful. Also, a more iconic video menu might tip off home page visitors that the T-shirts and sayings to the right of the video window conceal additional video testimonials.
For ages, new ad agencies have built their portfolios on public service campaigns. The Modern Brand demonstrates a firm grasp of design, grassroots marketing and PR with this effort.
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