brief
Cigarette litter is one of the top sources of microplastics and toxins in city runoff. We wanted to change that with a positive, empowering public awareness campaign.
pitch
Our campaign would use humour instead of negativity to encourage students on college campuses to recycle their cigarette butts. This positive choice would be rewarded in the form of new benches, shelters, or tables containing a portion of the recycled plastic.
deliverables
Pitch preparation and copywriting //
Identity and branding //
Advertising //
CIX isn’t about solving the whole problem at once. It’s about every person doing their own part to reverse the toxic trend of cigarette litter in their own communities.
We developed the brand name and mission statement concurrently, using the campaign's mission to inform the development of the identity. We found that most negative, quitting-focused media actually has the opposite effect as intended, so the Project CIX campaign specifically targets littering instead of tackling smoking as a whole.
This mission is especially important in light of the stigma around smoking and the push for "quitting-focused" media. Project CIX is about solving a small part of the problem rather than trying to force people to quit; it is anti-shame and uses positive, enabling language.
While this work was collaborative, we each contributed more heavily to our specialized areas.
branding, visual assets, pitch development: Ansel Dunne
naming and strategy: Kendell Naetzker
An important element of the project is the voting element built into the collection containers. Inspired by voting-style tip jars, the container allows users to choose how their cigarette butts will be used. The winning vote will determine whether a bench, a table, or a rain shelter will be installed in the smoking area.
