MTV is the universe of the young. Claimed to be India’s number one youth entertainment brand, it gets a lot of love, but with great love, comes some hate too, especially in the form of online trolls.
With a mammoth community of 25 mn+ across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, all kinds of trolling are common to MTV and its talent. The channel decided to turn this online ‘Trash Talk’ into something meaningful. They cleaned 1 kg of plastic off the streets for every trashy comment posted on its social handles.
While most symbols of evil can be destroyed, the one like single-use plastic stays forever. So, with Dussera being celebrated, the brand decided to collect all the Trash Talk it receives on social media and clean the digital filth with a physical manifestation of it on the day that marks the victory of good over evil.
Says Navin Shenoy, marketing head, Youth, Music, and English Entertainment, Viacom18, “Today’s youth is extremely invested and passionate about causes like the environmental hazards of plastic and climate change. As a creative powerhouse with a finger on the pulse of youth, we are always creating and curating campaigns to catalyse their minds and bring about positive impact.
Since MTV is known for having a fun take on everything and being a brand that battles trolls on an everyday basis, we thought why not this Dussera, let good win over the two biggest evils plaguing today’s society — trash online and trash offline! This was the genesis of #MTVTrashTalk, a campaign for the eco-conscious, digitally savvy generation.”
For every negative comment that was received, the brand, in partnership with an NGO called Waste Warriors, cleaned 1 kg of actual plastic waste from the streets of Mumbai.
They managed to clean various locations including Mahim Causeway, Bandra East station, Oshiwara, Bandra reclamation and Carter Road amongst others.
The campaign received strong support from MTV talents like Neha Dhupia, Rannvijay Singh Singha , Karan Kundra, Varun Sood, Dr Sanket Bhosale, Jonita Gandhi, Akasa, VJ Gaelyn, rappers like Kaam Bhari, Brodha V, SlowCheetah, popular influencer Miss Malini and Bollywood biggies like Farhan Akhtar and Priyanka Chopra, who also poured in their support for #MTVTrashTalk.
