TURNING URBAN SPRAWL INTO A VILLAIN, AND A MOVEMENT.
Environmental Defence needed a way to make urban sprawl feel urgent. And personal.
Our research showed that people cared about urban sprawl but they didn’t really understand it. Our creative solution: Mr. Sprawl, a cartoon villain who embodied everything wrong with unchecked development. The result? A campaign that cut through complexity, drove engagement, and mobilized public pressure.
“Mr. Sprawl made a dense subject relatable and memorable. This campaign personified a complicated issue and gave our community something to fight back against. And it worked.”
STEPHANIE KOHLS
Communications director, Environmental Defence Canada
15.000+
letters sent to Ontario MPPs
14M+
reached on TV
588K+
reached on Meta
Urban sprawl is one of the biggest threats to Ontario’s environment — but few people could explain what it actually is. That gap in public understanding was stalling action. So we made the issue human. Or rather… inhuman.
Mr. Sprawl was our villain. Greedy. Smarmy. Built to ruin the province, one paved-over field at a time. He became the anchor for a digital-first advocacy campaign that included a letter-to-target action, a Meta and TV ad campaign, and a welcome journey that turned first-time supporters into ongoing advocates. The campaign smashed our goals. It brought over 15,000 new supporters onto Environmental Defence Canada’s email list — 60% more than we projected — and did it below the organization’s cost-per-acquisition (CPA) benchmark. And it worked politically, too. Thousands of Ontarians sent letters directly to their MPPs and to the Minister responsible.
Urban sprawl is still a problem. But now it has a face. And a fight.
