Sanitation Foundation Case Study: “Don’t Do NYC Dirty”
Overview
A citywide campaign designed to shift long-standing littering behaviors through culturally grounded, community-driven messaging.
The work spanned all major touch-points, including:
PR & Launch Event generating citywide and national coverage
Street Activations with hyperlocal community partners
OOH: bus shelters, double-decker buses, garbage trucks, litter baskets, taxi tops, and cinemas
Broadcast: TV and radio (English and Spanish)
Print: community newsletters and local publications
Social & Creator Partnerships, including highly resonant content with @NewYorkNico
This multi-channel approach ensured the campaign showed up everywhere New Yorkers live, commute, and connect.
The Situation & Challenge
New York City has long struggled with litter, a problem made clear in the Sanitation Foundation’s first comprehensive litter study. The data revealed a striking behavioral gap: 83% of residents are proud to be New Yorkers, and 77% say it’s a great place to live, yet 38% admit they don’t always dispose of their trash properly, and only 29% say they’ve “never littered.” In short, city pride wasn’t translating into city care and there was an opportunity to close the gap. The Sanitation Foundation set out to do exactly that: inspire meaningful behavior change across 8.5 million residents with almost no media budget.
The challenge was straightforward:
How do you move a city known for its opinions, pace, and skepticism — without lecturing, and without paid media to rely on?New York City has long struggled with litter, and as the city reopened post-pandemic, the problem became even more visible. The Sanitation Foundation and NYC Department of Sanitation needed a way to shift everyday behavior across 8.5 million residents, and do it with almost no media budget.
The challenge was straightforward:
How do you move a city known for its opinions, pace, and skepticism - without lecturing, and without paid media to rely on?
The Approach
We grounded the campaign in an insight every New Yorker can agree on: the city deserves better.
Instead of traditional top-down PSAs, we built a community-led movement designed to feel like it came from New Yorkers themselves.
Key elements included:
Authenticity first: Partnered with @NewYorkNico and tapped into the voices locals trust like small business owners, neighborhood personalities, sanitation workers, and everyday New Yorkers.
We had TV and radio, but the city truly became our media plan: Through donated placements, we turned NYC’s own infrastructure into the platform — garbage trucks, litter baskets, taxi tops, pickleball courts, and movie theaters.
Creative designed for real behavior change: Bold, culturally fluent messaging sparked conversation.
Pro bono creative collaboration: Worked with Arnold Worldwide to develop work that felt unmistakably “New York,” ensuring the tone hit the right balance of pride and accountability.
The result was a campaign that moved like a grassroots movement, not a public service announcement, and did so at scale without traditional paid support.
The Results
The impact validated the strategy: authentic, hyperlocal storytelling resonates and shapes intentions when authentic and rooted in culture of the city.
$2.5M in donated media secured
147M+ impressions
National and local media coverage, including The New York Times, Bloomberg, NY1 and Fox News
21% campaign recall within 4 months of launch
Meaningful behavior change:
+9 point increase in reported non-litterers citywide
+15 points in Queens
+10 points in the Bronx
“Don’t Do NYC Dirty” shifted behavior at scale, proving that with the right cultural insight and creative approach, you can move an entire city without significant media spend.