TIDY Northern Ireland has always found that campaigning on youth (13-18 year olds) litter is one of the most difficult age bracket to bring about a positive change. A trigger that will change the behaviour of one peer group will do nothing for another. Much research has been undertaken on this age bracket and it appears that teenagers are very much influenced by their social groups rather than external factors. With the exception of two findings. One, this age bracket hate being given instructions and told what to do, and two their only positive behavioural changing trigger was their affinity to animals. From these findings it is clear that messages saying things like, 'Don't drop litter', or 'Use a Bin' won't work on this age bracket- they need to come to this understanding themselves.

In order to have maximum effect on this target audience, TIDY Northern Ireland designed a campaign using the graphics of a dead dog surrounded by litter with the strap line, 'Molly wasn't a road victim'. Similar graphics were designed for bus inners showing the same image but with the strap line, 'Didyoudoit.com', which took an inquisitive person to a web site showing the dangers of litter for animals. The purpose of this campaign was not to preach at this age group, but to provide them with an image that would eventually lead to a change in their littering behaviour.