I hope there is a parallel 'don't fucking use it in the first place' campaign.

"With encouraging messages to get people to recycle everything that can possibly be recycled"

I would hardly call "Fucking Recycle" a message of encouragement! Whilst its fine to have uber designed posters the UK government backed "Recycle Now" campaign (http://www.recyclenow.com/) is I think a better example of how we can encourage people to recycle.

The Recycle Now website appears to be glossier, very well produced, and certainly very approachable, Christian, but you summed up my suspicions precisely with "UK government backed."

Now maybe it's just me, and maybe it's because my government will wait until The Four Horsemen are ready to ride before they do something about the environment, but I'm suspect of any government telling me it has the best intentions at heart. I could be grossly mistaken, and the core messages behind Recycle Now are indeed sound, but I'd rather be suspicious of any government and do something myself to clean up the environment.

These posters are hardly "uber designed." They are minimalist yet with a brash unapologetic approach. Bravo, Ms. Redman.

Korean Avenger:
I don't quite get the point you are trying to make in your second paragraph: seems to me that government initiatives/regulations are the only way we can actually have any impact on improving recycling rates.

Whilst these posters are very nice to look at I just find the whole exercise irritating and irrelevant in a similair way to all the kerfuffle surrounding the "I am not a plastic bag" designer bags. I don't doubt the sincerity of the designer but I just question whether this will have any impact given the medium and way the messages are delivered.

My point about the Recycle Now campaign (particularly the TV adverts) is that I think it gets over the message in a clear, fun and unpretentious way.

The irony is when city clean up crews come to remove the posters and dispose of them directly in the trash.

Christian,

Perhaps it's just my misfortune as an American citizen to have to apologize for my government's hypocrisy. It may be unfair to assume that any government's attempts at appearning benevolent is to be taken with a great deal of suspicion. This may be unfair, but no matter what administration, we've seen staggering amounts of BS as evidenced by our current administration. I'd rather be accused of being too critical and too sceptical than to be taken for another fool.

I'm assuming that you live in the UK, and perhaps your government is taking things more pragmatically than our sad elected bastards are. However what I like about Ms. Redman's campaign is that it's unapologetic and done in rather short bursts. Popular culture has shortened attention spans to a disheartening level, and perhaps Ms. Redman's campaign is ideally suited for a larger audience than she could have suspected.

Lighten up, people...