PSA Ad Campaign

Context:

This project was based around a non-profit advertisement campaign for a fictitious litter-cleanup organization, with the campaign’s goal being to encourage litter cleanup and donations to the organization. It required a cohesive brand design and advertising story for its numerous promotional materials.

Project Branding:

Being a litter cleanup organization, the brand's main colors included a rich green (#44A62E) and light, sky blues (#CFEEFF and #A0DEFF). The logo mark was a crab clutching garbage in its two claws, with the pattern of the globe being seen on its carapace. The fictitious organization was named "Trash Snatchers."

Advertisment Story:

The main story of the campaign surrounds a person named Max getting fed up with the countless piles of litter scattered around his town and nearby shorelines. He then decides to take action and clean it up, but cannot finish the job on his own. The rest of the community then finds out about his efforts, and joins in to help him clean up the litter, and with their combined effort, they are successful. This story is featured in the campaign's Instagram carousel (scenes shown below) and short animated video, while snippets of the ideas behind it were used in the other advertisements, such as the two billboard ads.

A billboard for a litter cleanup PSA.
The logo of the fictitious, litter-cleanup organization dubbed "Trash Snatchers." It consists of a crab clutching a piece of trash in each of its claws—a bottle on the left and a can on the right—that has patterns of the Earth's continents on its carapace.
One of the brand colors of the fictitious "Trash Snatchers" brand. It is a light green with the hexadecimal value of #44A62E.One of the brand colors of the fictitious "Trash Snatchers" brand. It is a pale blue with the hexadecimal value of #CFEEFF.One of the brand colors of the fictitious "Trash Snatchers" brand. It is a light blue with the hexadecimal value of #A0DEFF.
PSA Carousel Part 1: An illustration of a person wearing blue, named "Max," walking down the sidewalk, noticing the large amounts of trash piled around. His facial expression seems to be a mix of confusion and annoyance.PSA Carousel Part 2: As Max walks to the beach, he finds even more trash piled along the shoreline, and is fed up with finding garbage everywhere.PSA Carousel Part 3: Max holds up a grabber tool above his head, and is going to take action to clean up all the litter.PSA Carousel Part 4: Max goes around cleaning the litter in numerous ways, sweeping it with a broom, snatching it with the grabber tool, holding a stuffed bad above his head, and tossing it into the recycling bin.PSA Carousel Part 5: While Max made plenty of progress, he has tired himself out and fell asleep while leaning on a recycling bin.PSA Carousel Part 6: Max's friends and townsfolk notice him sleeping by the recycling bin, and notice the remaining trash piled around.PSA Carousel Part 7: The townsfolk decide to pitch in and help clean up the remaining garbage in the area. One person is seen picking up clumps of trash with gloves. Another is seen shoveling the trash up with a snow shovel. Another uses a grabber tool, while three people carry trash away in their hands.PSA Carousel Part 8: Max awakens later on, and finds that all the trash has been cleaned-up. The clouds that have been in the sky have begun to clear away, and flowers can be seen blooming in the background.PSA Carousel Part 9: Max's friends and townsfolk wave at him, and Max sees that they've cleaned up all of the remaining litter and placed it into recycling bins. The sun can now be seen in the background.PSA Carousel Part 10: With his work done, Max takes a walk down the sidewalk in his freshly cleaned hometown. To his left, flowers and unspoiled fields can be seen. To his right, the beach and ocean sprawl into the distance. The sun can be seen setting in the distance, visibly sinking behind the sea. The litter-cleaning organization's brand logo can be seen in the bottom-right corner of the image, while the top of the image features the hashtag and tagline, "#LitterFreeWorld."
The Instagram carousel for the PSA campaign project.

The AI Component:

A limited usage of AI was required for the project: one billboard ad featured transparent usage of AI to address the campaign's issues and goals. This ad features Max having an interview with a robot—which represents ChatGPT—about problems caused by littering.

Additionally, Adobe Firefly (a form of AI used with permission from the instructor) was also used to help develop the plushie of the logo used to persuade user-generated marketing. A contest is held by the firm to see which user can clean up the most trash, and the winner recieves the plushie.

An Instagram post mockup depicting an announcement from the fictitious "Trash Snatchers" brand. Whoever cleans up the most litter and photographs it will win a plushie of the brand's logo. The plushie was in-part produced using Adobe's AI—Adobe Firefly—with permission from the instructor.An Instagram post mockup depicting a submission for "Trash Snatcher's" contest.
One of the components of the PSA project. This ad features Max talking to a robot representing ChatGPT about the issues of littering. It is a transparent usage of AI that was required for the project.

Out of Home Adverts:

Three Out-of-Home ads were made for the campaign. Two were billboards, one wide billboard and one sign-like billboard. The third element was a sign-like billboard in addition to some guerilla marketing: next to the sign is a branded recycling bin for depositing any nearby litter.

A billboard ad for the "Trash Snatchers" campaign. It features a split scene; on the left, Max stands in a box amidst a sea of garbage, visibly annoyed by his predicament. On the right, Max walks in a clean green field with flowers and trees in the distance. A recycling bin can be seen not too far from Max. The brand's logo is in the bottom right corner of the billboard.
A small, sign-like billboard ad for the "Trash Snatchers" campaign. At the top is written "Help us make a #LitterFreeWorld!" Below, numerous people work together to clean trash out of the environment. The brand's logo is in the bottom right corner of the billboard.A branded recycling bin with the "Trash Snatchers" logo on its front.A billboard ad featuring a branded recycling bin next to the billboard.

The Advert Side Story:

A side element of the campaign's main story was made for two components: the social media ad and the AR experience. For the social media ad, Max is featured in a mobile game where you grab walking cans and toss them into recycling bins, while a shadowy villain drops more down from his plane.

This concept was revisited for the AR component, which consisted of a game with a similar concept, only this time the gameplay is in a 3D space that is projected onto a live recording from the mobile device’s camera.

Both games had their own mock assets and interfaces, which were then placed in smartphone mock-ups to show what these elements would actually look like.

A twitter ad for the "Trash Snatchers" campaign. It advertises a mobile game whose purchase will be used to fund the litter-cleanup organization.
A mobile game mocked-up onto a smartphone. The game is similar to 8-bit platformers. The digital interface comes with two buttons, a directional pad, a pause button, and a home screen button.
An augmented reality mobile game mocked-up onto a smartphone. The digital interface comes with one button for in-game actions, a directional pad, a pause button, and a home screen button. Due to the game scene taking up most of the phone's screen, the interface is a translucent overlay.
A mock screenshot of a fictitious pixel art game used for the "Trash Snatchers" campaign.
A character sprite of Max, made for the pixel game for the "Trash Snatchers" campaign. It is based off of a particular NES platformer character.
A character sprite of the shadowy villain in his plane. His name is "Mr. Shadow," and he flies around dropping walking cans (or Cannies) below to attack Max. Like the rest of the pixel game's assets, he is inspired by 8-bit and other older video games.
A character sprite of a walking can, made for the pixel game for the "Trash Snatchers" campaign. This being is called a "Canny," and it serves as a sort of mobile hazard in the pixel game. They were created by the powers of Mr. Shadow.

Credits: