Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Ta Da!

Okay, it's a small start. Today I'm debuting my grassroots litter campaign (I'm thinking of this as my Hell, yeah I can! Day. With a tip of the hat to the new Mr. President.) I'm calling my little foray into grassroots movement "Bitter About Litter".

I wanted something simple and catchy. And I hope I've got it. I'm hoping that it's an easy way to say "No, I'm not cool with you throwing your cheeseburger wrapper out the car window." I'm not a graphic designer. But let's face it, I'm my own ad department at the moment. And if I wait to have the money to do something flashy, I'll never get started. And I really want to get started.

I've uploaded the images to Cafe Press (http://www.cafepress.com/bitterlitter) for a t-shirt and a bumper sticker, and I'm going to buy a few to test the quality. If they come out okay, I'm going to distribute them to friends. Who, hopefully they will like them enough to put them on their cars or bodies, and show them around town. My niece has already said that she'll wear one to her ecology club at school.

I didn't really want to mark the prices up any, but Dad convinced me that if I do, then I can pour any money back into the campaign - for things like fees to set up a table at an Earth Day fair or something. Gotta admit, that sounds kind of cool. So I just put a little extra on (or what I assume is a little). I'm trying to balance my Inaugral induced optimism with the very real possibility that nothing could come of this. Guess that's the good kind of ambivalence.

I'll let you guys know how the t-shirt and bumper sticker come out. And if you're interested in being a bill board, let me know. :)

7 comments:

momo said...

You go girl ... I'm very proud of you!

FirePhrase said...

Thanks. Today, I'm kinda proud of myself, too. [tiny grin]

victory4angela said...

Looks awesome!

I'm bitter about hundreds of thousands of tiny cigarette butts that are tossed out the windows. That's my least favorite litter. Okay, not a fan of bottles, wrappers, cans... too.

FirePhrase said...

Thanks! We'll see how it comes out in the printing process. But I've got my fingers crossed in an optimistic fashion.

My niece saw somebody flick a cigarette butt out a sun roof over the weekend. She fumed for about 6 miles. Those cigarette butts are tenacious too. They've subjected them in labs to the weathering effects of hundreds of years out doors. Hardly makes a dent.

victory4angela said...

I'd love to get a truckload of cigarette butts and dump the nasty things in the offending person's car. Take that, litterer!

Germans are super clean. They don't litter. There's no trash on the roads. But get near a large military base and you'll find McD's wrappers, cups, empty cans, bottles, and cigarette butts all over the roads around the base. I was completely disheartened the first time I drove near one of the larger bases. I silently apologized to the Germans for the Americans trashing their country.

WashingtonGardener said...

Cig butts are the #1 pollution in the world - no lie! They are full of carcinigens and nasty bacteria from smoker's mouths, take forver to decay (if ever), and accumulate like preteens aroundthe Jonas brothers. Yet smookers think, "Eh, it's so small, just flick it."

Love the T design - I have bought the ringer Ts for a couple other designs and they are well fitting. May I recommend adding to your line one of Cafepress's more green and earth-friendly Ts? That will send the right message for your campaign. Don't forget the kid sizes too. The dog T as well will go far in sales, I'm sure.

FirePhrase said...

I totally wanted to do the organic T. But it looks like it has a little color to it. So I think I need to get an image with transparency for it to look nice. But I'm trying to wrangle that next. I didn't even think about the doggie shirt. As I get images that are compatable with each size, I'll add more. I was just impatient to start, and worked on getting these 2 out.

There are even places in the US where littering is just not done. This is one area where a healthy sense of shame is warranted. People should feel totally embarassed for doing something so irresponsible.

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