City of Helsinki: Seagull Trash Patrol

If seagulls can dfo it, so can you!

Like all major cities, Helsinki, the capital of Finland, has a litter problem. Yearly millions are spent on cleaning up trash that people could easily put into bins. People litter, because a single piece of trash isn’t seen as something that has an impact. But people do care about their tax money at work, so we decided to hit them where it hurts.

Every year a city project get spotlighted for being absurd and costly. So, in order to raise awareness about litter, we started the most absurd and costly project imaginable: The Seagull Trash Patrol.

As a seaside city, people of Helsinki have a hate-love-relationship with seagulls. On the other hand, their sound is considered an icon of the city. On the other hand they’re seen as pests; spreading litter and stealing food from people.

With the help of an animal trainer, we trained seagulls into picking up trash (spoiler: they’re really bad at it and they’re in no way a realistic solution to littering). We documented the whole project and then the Helsinki Urban Environment Division published the endeavor, getting people talking about the amount of money spent on litter and the benefits of a clean city.

Sure, training seagulls was stupid and expensive, but collecting trash is even more stupid and expensive. In the advertising that followed, we used seagulls as mascots and activists, reminding people about the issue.

Role: Creative Direction, Concept design, Strategy
Agency: hasan & partners