Digital Clutter’s Carbon Footprint: New Campaign Urges Photo Deletion
A new campaign, “Not on myPhone,” launched on March 20, 2026, aims to raise awareness about the often-overlooked environmental impact of digital storage. The initiative, a partnership between M+C Saatchi Group UK, Bauer Media Outdoor and environmental charity Let’s Do It World, encourages individuals to delete unwanted photos and videos from their smartphones to reduce their digital carbon footprint.
The Hidden Cost of Digital Storage
With 7.4 billion smartphones in leverage globally, the energy required to store and maintain digital content has a significant environmental cost. The campaign highlights that the average person in the UK takes approximately five digital photos per day, collectively generating over 800,000 tonnes of carbon annually – equivalent to nearly a million flights between London and New York.
Simple Action, Measurable Impact
“Not on myPhone” promotes a simple behavioral change: dedicating 30 minutes to cleaning up your phone. Deleting roughly 100 photos and a few videos is estimated to offset the CO2 production of a 1km car journey. The campaign aims to make this invisible issue visible and demonstrate how little actions can collectively make a substantial difference.
Campaign Creative and Execution
The campaign’s creative concept playfully subverts typical photography aesthetics. Instead of showcasing polished images, it features the chaotic reality of most camera rolls – blurry pictures, duplicate selfies, screenshots, and random receipts. These images were crowdsourced from real people’s phones and transformed into bold, high-impact outdoor posters.
These intentionally mundane images are displayed on large-format digital Out of Home (DOOH) sites across major UK cities, including London, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, strategically positioned near train stations and busy roads to reach commuters. The campaign is designed to be self-deleting; the DOOH media will be removed after 48 hours, and all featured images have already been deleted.
Part of a Global Movement
“Not on myPhone” is connected to the broader Digital Cleanup Day, a global campaign led by Let’s Do It World. Since 2020, 175 countries have participated, with over 1.7 million people deleting over 16.8 million GB of data, preventing the annual production of around 3,360 tons of CO2. The University of Northampton is also participating with a week-long pilot program encouraging digital sustainability among students and staff.
Industry Support and Pro Bono Contributions
The campaign is running entirely pro bono, with Bauer Media Outdoor donating premium DOOH sites. Additional media placements have been secured in South Africa, Dubai, and Brazil through M+C Saatchi’s international network.
Statements from Campaign Leaders
Heidi Solba, president and head of the global network of Let’s Do It World, emphasized that “Digital pollution is a growing issue that most people never think about. Every photo, screenshot and duplicate image stored in the cloud requires energy to maintain. Digital Cleanup Day encourages people to accept small but meaningful actions to reduce their digital carbon footprint. ‘Not on myPhone’ helps make this massive problem visible and shows how simple behaviour changes can make a real difference.”
Guy Bradbury, creative partner at M+C Saatchi Group UK, added, “Most of us have thousands of photos on our phones we will never look at again. We store them without giving it a second thought, or a thought for the energy it takes to preserve them sitting on a server somewhere. Created in partnership with Bauer Media, this iconic campaign gets people to look again, driving behaviour change and encouraging the nation to take 30 minutes to clean up their carbon cloud.”
Louise Stubbings, partnerships and creative director at Bauer Media Outdoor UK, concluded, “Digital sustainability is an issue that affects all of us, yet we often don’t feel any personal responsibility for it. By donating some of our most impactful digital outdoor sites to the ‘Not on myPhone’ campaign, we hope to help bring this hidden carbon cost into public view in a way that’s relatable, accessible, and behaviour changing.”
Individuals are encouraged to participate and share the message using the hashtag #NotOnMyPhone.