Valencia Communication: Using artificial intelligence to combat butt waste
Because discarded cigarette butts are a major problem for the environment, Valencia Kommunikation and the Basel Department of Public Works are raising awareness of this issue in this year’s anti-littering campaign—featuring smoking wild animals.
The Basel Civil Engineering Office is currently using a campaign to draw attention to a littering problem. The concept and implementation came from the Valencia Kommunikation agency, which also provided strategic support to the Civil Engineering Office in collaborative workshops.
The campaign is part of a three-year anti-litter plan developed by Valencia Kommunikation together with the client. This was preceded by some strategic groundwork. First, the company's number 1 positioning was worked out in a workshop and possible personas were elicited with the help of limbic mapping. Based on these findings, the slogan "Basel stays clean, thanks to you!" was developed. The slogan is part of an anti-litter campaign that focuses on a different problem each year. In this way, individual messages can be transported in a target-group-oriented manner and in the appropriate channels.
Images created by AI
In its first year, anti-litter communication addresses the issue of cigarette butts. Thrown away carelessly instead of disposed of correctly, they pose a multi-faceted problem. An ordinary cigarette butt contains so much poison and microplastic that it can poison up to 1,000 liters of water. If it lands on the ground, it can take up to 15 years to decompose.So the idea was born to use high-impact images of smoking wildlife to draw attention to this problem and communicate littering facts at the same time. The images were created in a multi-stage process using artificial intelligence and then lithographically post-processed. The campaign images can currently be seen on a BVB streetcar.
Responsible at the Basel Civil Engineering Office: Dominik Egli (Head of City Cleaning). Responsible at Valencia Communication: Strategy: Michael Gerber, concept and text: Sebastian Refardt, creation and design: Tommy Schilling, Béatrice Otto, Michelle Mathis Polygraphy: Sylvia Schneider, consulting and project management: Claudia Paganini, Ilaria Seminatore, Roman Bärtschi Image editing: Patrik Rohner.
