Taiwan Taps The Powers Of God, AI, And Holograms To Stop Notorious Litterbugs

While taking out the trash may seem like one of the easiest chores, it isn’t so in Taiwan. Residents in the city are required to queue with their garbage bags in a designated area while waiting for the truck to arrive.

If one misses the garbage truck, they’ll have to take the trash back home or dispose of it sneakily—leading to the prevalent problem of littering. To address this, creative agencies Leo Burnett Taiwan and Digitas Taiwan decided to tap into the powers of “God” and artificial intelligence.

The cheeky campaign uses an AI-powered device dubbed the ‘GOD-IS-WATCHING Behaviour Recognition Detector’. Sounding rather ominous, the model helps spot litterbugs and projects a holographic projection of a deity to warn them to dispose of garbage correctly.

Interestingly, as there are hundreds of deities in Taiwan’s main religion of Taoism, the agencies had to choose the correct god to convey the message. They went with Tudigong, otherwise known as the God of Land, who is revered as a family elder in a “stern yet friendly” manner.

Kevin Yang, CEO at Leo Burnett Taiwan, explained that most people in the city don’t dump their trash with bad intentions. As such, creating a holographic projection of a deity was the most creative way to showcase how technology, such as AI, can make neighborhoods better.

Within three months of implementing the pilot program, the region saw a 73% drop in the dumping of illegal waste. Going forward, the projection of Tudigong could be rolled out to other districts in New Taipei City soon. 

[via Campaign Brief Asia and LBB Online, images via Leo Burnett Taiwan]