Studies showed that young men wouldn't litter if someone they thought was "good-looking" was watching, and making littering socially unacceptable was the key to success. That became our strategic choice, psychology and evolution biology combined with creative and entertaining way to adress and reach the target group.

We can create sufficient awareness of littering -> IF <- we can make people feel that others think you are unattractive when you litter and attractive when you don't. And thus reduce littering in the long run. And thus in the long run reduce littering in Malmö, i.e. fulfil the overall purpose.

Situation

Despite plenty of bins, litter is still thrown on the ground, which contributes to an increased sense of insecurity. This has been an increasing problem in the city of Malmö. It affects the experience of the place, gives the city a neglected and unkempt appearance with negative environmental outcome. Also, cleaning up costs taxpayers millions annually. Still, everyone knows that they shouldn’t throw litter on the ground, but do it anyway.

We found that littering is highly irrational, and it doesn't help to have authorities pointing their fingers and threatening fines.

Brief

The brief was to find incentives to break the littering habit.

Objectives

Create behavioural change that increases the possibility of a cleaner city for all by reaching the target group who don't care about their littering. The campaign needed to take place in the public space, attract attention and become a 'talking point' with a modest budget.

Littering in Malmö is a major problem. Cleaning up the rubbish costs taxpayers a lot every year. Previous attempts to change behaviour have failed - Rational arguments don't work, people know they shouldn't litter. In other words, littering is highly irrational. But there are no emotional incentives for littering.

Our strategic choice: to use evolutionary theory, surprise and dirty talk to make littering attractive, how weird it even may sound. And to deliver on this strategy, we needed a polarizing idea that could make a noise with a very limited budget. We believed that Dirty Talking Trash Cans would be exactly that. Bins that would be fun both to use and to talk about. In the streets and something to share on social media. And if throwing trash could become naughty, we could achieve behavioral change long term.

To break the littering habit for young men in particular, they target group had very little incentive to change their behaviour. A quarter would litter if no one was looking. It is also extremely difficult to create attention in the channels and media available in the city.

To activate, we looked at the people, who litters the most, their attitudes and values and their attitude towards littering. And, a major challenge, where do we best reach them?

Tactical choice, placing the campaign in the cityscape, close to the 'product' itself, bringing the city to life and emotion and interacting with people.

Research showed that young men wouldn't litter if someone they thought was "good-looking" was watching, and making littering socially unacceptable was the key to success. That became our strategic choice, using psychology, evolution biology, creativity and entertainment to inform and adress by making dirty talk!

Our insights created a spark on an idea that polarizes.

1. Young men stand out as the biggest litter-offenders and litters more than older men.

3. An already dirty place makes people litter even more.

4. Social norms are the most influential factor.

5. Campaign messages about 'not littering' didn’t generate interest in the target group. Rather the opposite.

As the main villains are young, and mostly boys, we realized the uncool filth of the trash cans actually could become part of their most favored interest, filthy fantasies. So, with that ancient inner drive, which seems to peak at that age, we turned some of the most modern trash cans in Malmö into dirty talking dittos.

Re-programed trash cans using exotic actors’ voices with naughty messages. Throwing a gum away suddenly felt like doing something forbidden and EXCITING! Both to do and to share. Please talk dirty to me.

To create real impact that leads to discussion and then leads to behavioural change, we needed an idea that polarizes. We achieved desired behavioral change both immediately on the ground and over time with our campaign, as it spread to our target audience's preferred channels.

Achevements

+398% increase in the use of bins during the campaign.

+330% increase in use 38 days after the campaign.

Reach

+563 million in organic reach on social media.

+130,000 people talked about the dirtiest thing there is: littering.

+140 international media outlets highlighted the campaign, including Trevor Noah and John Oliver, both world-famous talk show hosts covered the news on their broadcasts.

Target audience

+44% of men aged 13-24 engaged on TikTok and YouTube.