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Keep Texas Beautiful
introduced the now famous "Don't Mess With Texas"
campaign years ago to raise awareness about litter prevention. Keep Cincinnati
Beautiful adopted the slogan
"Don't Trash the 'Nati".
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Don't Throw Down on K-TOWN
In the fall of 2003, Keep Knoxville
Beautiful sought the help of a UTK student advertising agency called PR
Concepts to develop a new litter prevention awareness campaign aimed at
males aged 16 to 25.
In the summer of 1998 the Texas Department of Transportation conducted a
phone survey of 1,201 licensed drivers randomly selected for age, gender and
geography. The margin of error in the study was +/-2%. In the
survey, 22% of respondents admitted littering within the last 3 months.
Another group of "reformed" litterbugs 16% said they had littered in
the past but not in the last 3 months. Another 14% said they  did
not litter but felt littering was OK - not a problem. In all, 52% admitted
littering or tolerating litter. 51% of smokers and 45% of truck drivers
admitted littering or being tolerant of litter. The study produced a rank
order of characteristics of a person most likely to admit littering. Those
characteristics are:
- Age - 24 and under
- Smoking cigarettes
- Eating fast food at least 2 nights a week
- Driving more than 50 miles a day
- Going to bars or other nighttime entertainment
at least once a week
- Being single, never married
The Institute for Applied Research
observed people's litter behavior in public places in 16 U.S. states and 3
Canadian provinces. They found littering begins at an early age, rises
during the teens and early 20's and begins dropping off sharply when people
reach age 35. Here is a chart summarizing the findings:
|
Percent of Persons
Observed Littering Consumer Products
(18 U.S. States & 3 Canadian provinces) |
| |
|
Age Group: |
1-5 |
6-14 |
15-24 |
25-34 |
35-44 |
45-54 |
55 plus |
| Product |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Snacks, Candy, Gum |
7.1% |
49.5% |
29.1% |
8.9% |
1.9% |
1.5% |
1.5% |
| Beer & Soft Drinks |
3.1% |
12.5% |
37.6% |
26.4% |
0.0% |
5.1% |
0.0% |
| Take-out Food, Drink |
1.2% |
9.6% |
44.4% |
24.1% |
11.3% |
5.4% |
4.1% |
| Source:
Institute for Applied Research |
PR Concepts conducted two focus groups of UTK
male students, ages 18 to 23. Those students provided very valuable
information about their littering behavior and what would make them stop
littering. Here are some highlights of their reactions:
- All the students admitted littering at one time or another.
- Trash containers needed to be literally everywhere to
really encourage proper disposal.
- A famous spokesperson would not convince them to stop
littering - a compelling message would.
- If they personally knew who had to pick up after them they
might not litter.
- If they were certain they would be caught and punished they
would not litter.
Based on the survey data and the focus group
results, the creative staff at Citadel Communications in Knoxville
developed the slogan "Don't Throw Down on K-Town". Keep
Knoxville Beautiful originally purchased advertising time to run three ads on
stations reaching county, rock and rap music audiences.
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Listen to the radio spots
promoting
Don't
Throw Down
on K-TOWN!
WIVK
100.3
The River
Wild
98.7
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