Keep Cincinnati Beautiful Begins "Jerky Behavior" Litter Campaign

For 3 decades Keep Cincinnati Beautiful has urged Cincinnatians to pitch their trash in the can where it belongs; the Keep America Beautiful affiliate continues its ongoing war against litter in Cincinnati streets with their most recent campaign, "Littering is wrong too." As with "Don't trash the 'Nati," a late 90s anti litter crusade that dropped the 'Cincin' from the city's name in an effort to reach a hipper, younger littering generation, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful is trying something new.

This time they hope to draw attention to the city's litter problem with a grassroots campaign that asks Cincinnatians to think up their best examples of "jerky behavior." The conclusion at the end of each thought is that "littering is wrong too."

Coming to an Event Near You

The quirky campaign began on July 15 with a traditional Cincinnati style Fountain Square kickoff. Keep Cincinnati Beautiful set up a booth and introduced "Littering is wrong too" during Thursday's Salsa on the Square; since then they've given away tee shirts and other campaign goodies at the Wednesday Party in the Park at Yeatman's Cove and Friday's Indie Music On The Square.

A Personal Campaign

During the "Don't Trash the 'Nati" campaign, volunteers hit the pavement, canvassing what researchers had determined to be litter-heavy parts of town. They targeted 15 to 17 year old litterers with public service announcements that aired on popular radio and television stations, met with local groups and social service agencies to discuss the growing litter problem; and they displayed their message on billboards.

By distributing information at local events, "Littering is wrong too" is making similar personal contacts, although its with a slightly different demographic. They are putting up a series of billboards, as well; but the internet is also playing a significant role in their new campaign.

A Social Campaign too

Keep Cincinnati Beautiful has established an online presence with targeted banners on sites like AOL and a Facebook page with real time updates. A new website, www.litteringiswrongtoo.org, asks you to equate litter with other "brainless, thoughtless, rude, diabolical..... and just plain wrong wrongs." They invite you share your ideas of jerky behavior; and when you do, Cincibeautiful on twitter (they dropped the 'nati this time) will share their favorite wrong wrongs with twitter followers.

What's been tweeted so far? 'Marrying your cousin," "teaching monkeys to use guns," "rooting for the Steelers" and "breaking up with your girlfriend via Facebook" are some of the jerky behaviors tweeted this week. Of course, as you know, littering is wrong too.

Source:

http://www.litteringiswrongtoo.org/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cincinnati-OH/Keep-Cincinnati-Beautiful/9081682798?v=wall

http://twitter.com/cincibeautiful

http://www.keepcincinnatibeautiful.org/index.php

http://usmayors.org/bestpractices/litter/Cincinnati.html