Keep Britain Tidy / Cigarette-related litter

Showing how a small, discarded butt can cause a lasting impact

Bin it or take it with you

The challenge

Cigarette butts make up an astonishing 66% of all littered items! This creates a big issue as cigarette butts are made of plastic and can take up to 14 years to break apart. Cigarette litter is harmful to wildlife and seeps toxins into the earth and our waterways. We needed to stub out smoking related litter.

The Insight

Dropping a cigarette butt is a subconscious habit. For smokers, cigarette butts are not seen as environmental litter - as soon as they are flicked, they become someone else’s problem. They are unaware that such a small act has such significant, long-term effects.

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The Solution to create Change

Our strategy aimed to connect the short-term flick habit to the long-term environmental consequences by continuing the story from that seemingly small act to show 14 years’ worth of consequences. Considered targeting ensured we reached our audience at key junctures in their day as well as locations where the correct behaviour needed reinforcement (to bin their butts or take them with them).

Billboard advertisement promoting biodegradable cigarette butts as rubbish that can take 14 years to break apart, with images of a cigarette butt and a broken cigarette on a city street.

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A dog sniffing grass near a cigarette butt, with a background of houses and a cloudy sky, part of a campaign poster urging against littering.
A bird with a cigarette butt on the ground near its feet, with text promoting awareness about littering and its environmental harms.

Impact

+9%

increase in knowledge about how long it takes for a cigarette butt to break apart

89%

of the audience were more likely to bin their cigarette butt or take it with them after use

Awards

Purple Dot Awards logo with the words 'PURPLE DOT AWARDS' in large white letters against a black background.
Black background with a stylized white tree logo and text in Chinese and English that reads 'Beijing International Public Service Advertising Conference.'

The campaign was shortlisted at the Purpose Awards and was a winner at the Beijing International Public Service Advertisement Conference.

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