Recycling Campaign Uses Irony to Make People Listen

"I'm dating my ex, does that count as recycling?” is certainly not the type of slogan you'd expect to see in a state's marketing campaign.  "And that's the point," says Randy Hartmann, the Director of the Office of Environmental Management of the Georgia DCA. The state-wide recycling awareness campaign's characters, like “Tommy”, all have a common, but irrational excuse for saying "I don't recycle". Tommy proclaims that he'll find a new planet when this one gets full. Along with Tommy are several other characters, who also have mistaken and ridiculous reasons for not recycling. By highlighting the absurdities behind not recycling, the campaign responds with "you gotta be kidding!"

"Every time someone bypasses a recycling bin or chooses to throw a can away," Hartmann explains, "they're effectively saying, 'I don't recycle!' They're wearing their apathy on their sleeve. What we're saying is that these excuses won't work anymore." The motivation for delivering an entertaining, yet hard-hitting campaign to Georgians came from a recent DCA survey which showed that a whopping 45 percent of Georgians do not regularly recycle.  The “You Gotta Be Kidding” campaign is something to watch- being such a unique, experimental new effort; this interesting new approach could really take off and become nationwide. The campaigners lead the public to yougottabekidding.org for funny character bios and hard, deeply resonating facts.

(Source: The Georgia DCA)