Background

The Gas Leaks Project, an environmental messaging group fighting against gas industry misinformation, needed help breaking through this issue fatigue. They came to us with a big ambition: shifting the conversation by creating an ‘ick’ reaction to natural gas.  

We had our work cut out for us. Unlike other successful campaigns against products like cigarettes, ‘natural’ gas enjoys shockingly high public approval (73% favourability in 2022). That favourability is one of the biggest roadblocks to electrification.

Unfortunately, unlike other household products, there’s no way to see what’s in natural gas: 21 toxic chemicals. More bad stuff than most clean-conscious consumers would ever bring into their home.

Idea

We needed to expose the toxic reality of ‘natural’ gas in a way that would make people care. To help people see the 21 toxic chemicals in natural gas, we found inspiration from the only source of entertainment we watch specifically for the toxicity: reality television.

In Hot & Toxic, one unsuspecting homeowner is forced to live with 21 of the hottest, most toxic houseguests. However, these aren’t your typical reality TV personalities; they are literally the toxic chemicals found in natural gas such as Hexane, Formaldehyde and Carbon Monoxide (you can call her C.MO).

Results

Through paid media, Hot & Toxic reached the 10.5M Millennial women living in U.S. states with a greater than 40% of households with natural gas. 

Campaign testing with our target showed a significant shift in attitudes. Favourable opinion of natural gas dropped by 28 pts (from 56% to 28%). The perception of natural gas as ‘clean’ fell from 41% to 24%. And awareness that natural gas is bad for your health rose from 28% to 60%.

Meanwhile, coverage of Hot & Toxic generated over 400M earned impressions with coverage in The Guardian, HuffPost and Reuters.