Tidy Kiwis Band Together

The video above, a shorter version of which is on NZ television as a commercial, is part of a new public information campaign aimed at reducing litter. It’s a problem that never goes away, but maybe this will help reduce it.

“Band Together” is a 3-year public information campaign and is a partnership between the “Be A Tidy Kiwi” campaign, the Love NZ (recycling) brand, and several corporate sponsors. It has “significant funding” from the Ministry for the Environment's Waste Minimisation Fund. In addition to the public information campaign, they’ll also be piloting “smart technology bins” and schools education programmes around the country.

The background music, “It's just how we do things round here”, is intended to be an “anthem to encourage everyone to do the right thing and put litter in its place.” The song can be purchased, but I have no idea who gets the money from song sales.

In general, I think public information campaigns to change people’s behaviour can be a good thing, particularly if they’re effective at changing bad behaviour. But after decades of road safety and drink driving ads, we still have people driving badly or under the influence, so the track record is, shall we say, mixed.

Still, anything that helps to reduce littering is a good thing, and if this campaign does that, then so much the better. We’ll know soon enough if it’s helping or not.