‘Nature Hates a Tosser’ personifies native wildlife as watchful and angry rather than innocent and helpless, to target an audience that will often make excuses for littering, or assume it’s okay if no one sees them doing it.

It’s a simple truth — nature hates a tosser. And one at the core of a new NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) awareness campaign, aimed at changing the behaviour of daily and weekly litterers.

The new campaign builds on and reimagines the highly successful 11-year-old NSW EPA ‘Don’t be a Tosser’ platform. It will be seen across TV, BVOD, SVOD, radio, digital and social, OOH, and CALD assets (film, social, radio). Local governments across NSW will also utilise assets to ensure maximum visibility.

303 MullenLowe Sydney’s chief strategy officer Jody Elston said by portraying furious birds and turtles confronting litterers, ‘Nature Hates a Tosser’ and its “disruptive tonality” aimed to make people reconsider their act of littering as harmless, and understand the real harm it causes to wildlife and waterways.

“We know that anonymity increases people’s propensity to litter,” she said.

“Young men in particular are less likely to drop litter when people are around, or they are closer to home, so we needed to shift from evoking social shame when people are watching, to personal shame in the moment. To ensure their emotional response would override convenience-led excuses.

The ‘Nature Hates a Tosser’ campaign is the first executed by 303 MullenLowe since being appointed by NSW EPA earlier this year after a competitive pitch. Utilising its strong behaviour change expertise, the agency undertook extensive research to ensure its approach would engage the male target demographic aged 18-44.

It then worked closely with NSW EPA and the Litter Prevention Unit to deliver a campaign strategy, creative platform and communications architecture, while also executing all production.