Keep Britain Tidy Launches First TV Ad in a Campaign to Stub Out All Smoking-Related Litter

Keep Britain Tidy, the environmental charity, is launching its first TV ad for a new campaign tackling smoking-related litter (the number one littered item in the UK) that aims to highlight the damaging environmental consequences of dropped cigarette butts.

The charity plays a key role in encouraging the public to help keep the country’s streets, beaches and shared spaces clean as the organisation champions the end of waste and improvement of places. It has appointed purpose-driven creative agency 23red and media agency Wavemaker UK to handle creative and PR for the campaign as well as strategic planning and buying, respectively.

The TV ad, launching this week, highlights how each butt dropped can take 14 years to break apart, seeping toxic chemicals into the earth and waterways, leaving behind microplastics. Despite smoking rates being at their lowest level since records began, cigarette butts continue to account for 66% of all litter.

The overall campaign aims to encourage smokers to change their behaviour by demonstrating the toxic life a butt has after it's been dropped. As part of its strategy for driving behavioural change, the campaign will employ smart targeting methods to reach heavy smokers in the moments before they light up. Focusing activity on know triggers and smoking occasions, it reminds and encourages smokers to “bin it or take it with you”. The campaign, spanning TV, BVOD is launching this week while OOH, Radio, Digital Audio and Social, is set to launch in February.

Allison Ogden-Newton, chief executive at Keep Britain Tidy said: “Every day, millions of cigarette butts are poisoning our environment, doing damage that can never be undone. This is why our campaign is so important.

“Our environment cannot wait a day longer for us to tackle this toxic timebomb and we need to get the message across to smokers that each and every one of them has a role to play by doing the right thing - either binning their butt immediately or taking it with them if there is no bin available.

“The costs of dealing with cigarette litter, both financial and environmental, are too high. At a time when we are seeing a squeeze on finances individually and as a nation, as well as understanding the impact we are all having on our environment, we need to take action now. It is for this reason that we are so proud to announce our new campaign”

“We are looking forward to working with 23red and Wavemaker to help spearhead our campaign. With their highly collaborative, integrated approach and passion for purpose-driven behaviour change, these two agencies are ideal partners to support us in stamping out this issue, once and for all.”

23red strategy partner Simon Mutter said: “Keep Britain Tidy is one of the key driving forces behind a more environmentally friendly Britain. Its mission has never been more relevant.”

“This important brief is about improving the environment on all our doorsteps. Flicking is habitual, unconscious and normalised, so we’re excited to draw on our behaviour change experience in public health and sustainability to get smokers to take responsibility for the environmental impact of their habit and bin their butts.”

Oliver Halliwell, managing partner, Wavemaker UK added: “As well as being a blight on some of the most beautiful spots in Britain, cigarette butts have persistent, harmful effects on the environment - they are extremely toxic as well as ugly. The issue is that few know the severity of the problems they cause, and many don’t consider butts as litter. Understandably, without this knowledge, the likelihood of smoking-related litter is far higher. We must arm smokers with this crucial information, and we’re delighted to have been selected by Keep Britain Tidy to help do just that. In delivering this with 23red, we truly have the opportunity to create unrivalled work that moves people and has a positive impact on the world.”