Greater Manchester's Dirty Secret

Clean Cities
A campaign calling on candidates to clean up our air
Campaign Toolkit, OOH Advertising, Film, Digital, Social Media, Strategy, Email Marketing, Digital Marketing

Ahead of the 2024 Greater Manchester Mayoral Election, Creative Concern was commissioned by Clean Cities Campaign to create a campaign calling on candidates to pledge to clean up our air. Greater Manchester is one of the most polluted places in the UK. Levels of nitrogen dioxide are reported higher here than anywhere else in the country, and well over the UK legal limit. Nitrogen dioxide is a gas that is harmful to human health. A major source in our cities is petrol and diesel engines. Along with other pollutants, nitrogen dioxide affects lung function – especially in the old and young – and particularly impacts those with existing conditions such as asthma.

Greater Manchester deserves better. This campaign reveals the facts about air pollution, and asks voters to take action now by emailing a mayoral candidate. The campaign led with the concept of revealing Manchester's dirty secret.

The call to action was clear - Take action now to get our mayoral candidates to sit up and take notice of our dirty air. An email template was embedded on the campaign landing page to allow people to email candidates directly with demands. The campaign was a partnership between Clean Cities, Ardwick Climate Action, Asthma and Lung UK, Friends of the Earth Manchester, Let's Talk Clean Air Whalley Range, Mums for Lungs, Walk Ride GM, and was also activated across their social media channels.

A comprehensive campaign toolkit pulled together a mixture of graphic assets with both digital and print outputs in mind. A direct and powerful graphic language was produced in response to the need for the campaign to be clear and direct in its messaging, exploring the use of textural elements and playful illustrations. 

We encouraged people to capture local traffic and local residents directly impacted by air pollution and share via social media to help expose the reality in Greater Manchester. These images were also combined with graphic stickers to help unify this imagery with the core look of the campaign.

The campaign was launched with an expose style film, with experts revealing the truth about the air we breathe, and locals outlining the impact this has on their daily lives. Guerrilla style posters were pasted across Manchester City Centre in high-traffic areas, directing people to a campaign landing landing page.

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