Dubai Municipality launches well-intentioned but weirdly executed awareness campaign.

Dubai Municipality launches well-intentioned but weirdly executed awareness campaign.

So how exactly is the Municipality executing this campaign? A series of lectures, workshops, film screenings, awareness drive and, wait for it, taxi drivers.

May 21, 2012 3:53 by Eva Fernandes

For some time now Kipp has impressed upon you just how much of a bad-ass we are. You know sometimes, when we are feeling exceptionally gutsy, we drive without our safety belts on (in residential areas only, of course). But the one thing we are a tad iffy about is – littering. For all its chaos, Dubai is a relatively clean city. Of course, this isn’t so much a reflection of the resident’s cleanliness; rather a reflection of the efficiency of the hefty littering fines and the omnipresent diligent men dressed in yellow. And yet, despite the city’s best efforts, roadsides are studded with cigarette butts and trash disposed by a moving blur speeding in a car. Check out these pictures from Volunteer in Dubai’s recent clean up, if you don’t believe us.

It gets on our nerves, which is why Kipp applauds the Dubai Municipality efforts to raise awareness about the necessity to keep the city clean. A ten day campaign, starting from today, has been launched to let people know they shouldn’t be ‘littering, spitting or throwing cigarette butts on the road.’ So how exactly is the Municipality executing this campaign? A series of lectures, workshops, film screenings, awareness drive and, wait for it, taxi drivers. According to Gulf News, “the municipality has taken onboard taxi drivers to help spread its message. Taxi drivers are undergoing awareness sessions about the importance of keeping the roads clean…”

Is Kipp the only one a little confused by this move? Sure, taxi drivers are on the road a lot, but when was the last time you saw a taxi driver chasing a litter bug down Sheikh Zayed road? And for the life of us, we wouldn’t pay money to have a taxi driver chastise us about the virtues of not littering on our way into work. It is a strange demographic, but Kipp’s sure there is some logic behind the move; we just can’t seem to wrap our mind around it. Either way, they have the right idea. Don’t be a litterbug-just don’t be that guy.