To: Marilyn Wall

From: Hailey
Date: 12/2/2023
Subject: Campaign Proposal

Name of the Campaign:

“The Fight For Us” I picked this name because

Why is this needed?:

For over 100 years the steel company, formerly known as A.K. Steel, now Cleveland-Cliffs Inc, has been
polluting the community of Middletown through volatile organic compounds (VOC). These VOCs are
admitted into the air at high quantities as a result of this, Middletown is left with large amounts of
pollution that affects their way of life. Up until 2020, Ohioans were able to address air problems, like the
VOC being admitted by Cleveland-Cliffs Inc, by Ohio's air nuisance rule. Community members were able
to send in a letter addressing the concerns, the government and the polluters had 60 days to fix the issue.
If the problems were not fixed within that time frame then the community was able to take legal actions
and the court cost and attorney fees would be paid for by the polluters. However, in March of 2020 the
US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took away this rule, but in February this year the courts
ruled in favor of the Sierra Club’s motion that stated the illegality of removing this law. Now it is time for
Ohioans to come together to reimplement this rule in order for communities like Middletown to be able to
fight against air pollution that is caused by industrial plants. That is why Middletown and the Sierra Club
(Ohio) have partnered up in order to help push this petition in order to force the Ohio EPA to reinforce
this rule.

The purpose of this campaign is to help spread awareness of the Ohio air nuisance rule and how it affects
communities in Ohio, like Middletown. As well and try to get some public engagement with the petition
to direct people into signing. By using social media platforms in order to spread this campaign it will be
able to spread quicker and easier.

Who is the intended audience?

The intended audience will be the people of Ohio since the petition can only be signed by current
residents of the state. Another audience will be for people who are interested in learning about
what is happening in Middletown. As well as anyone interested in learning about the effects of
industrial pollution on local communities.
Calls-to-Action
1. Encourage people to sign the petition on AddUp, because the signatures will be
provided to the Ohio EPA to show how many Ohioans agree with the
reinstatement of the Ohio air nuisance rule.
2. List information regarding the Ohio air nuisance rule and how it will effect
Ohioans
3. Share testimonials from members of the Middletown community about how the
pollution effects them
4. Show graphic data of pollution being recorded in Middletown and what that
pollution looks like in the town

Visual Content Layout

Here is an example of what a three day campaign could look like on social media
platforms run on Meta ( Facebook, Instagram)

Pre day 1: You would make a “Coming Soon” page to let your followers know that something is
coming. This helps to stir up engagements due to the anticipation. This visual post could look
something like this:

“ We are so excited about what we have planned for next week! Come back tomorrow at 12pm
EST to find out what we have going on!”

Day 1: On the first day you will make a post that will introduce the campaign to your followers.
“ We have partnered with the Sierra Club Ohio up to spread awareness about the Ohio Air
Nuisance Rule. We hope to reach our goal of 5,000 signatories on the petition to bring this to
the Ohio EPA to have the rule reinstated. Below you can find the link to the petition. #FightforUs

Sign me:https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/restore-air-nuisance-rule-in-ohio ”

Day 2: On the next day, you will post a two page post. The content of this post will be to focus
on what the Ohio Air Rule Nuisance is.

“ This Rule will allow people, like us, to have reassurance that air pollution concerns are being
handled within a certain amount of time and not fallen to the waist side. If nothing happens in 60
days then we have automatic standing within Ohio courts. We are of our voices not being heard
and this will guarantee that they can’t ignore us anymore. As we continue in this on going
#FightforUS.

Be sure to sign the petition! https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/restore-air-nuisance-rule-in-

ohio”

Day 3: On the last day this post will be a quote from the community members on how pollution
affects them. This personal touch to the campaign will make the audience able to connect with
victims of the air pollution in the community.

“ This is the harsh reality for the people living right next to Cleveland-Cliffs inc. How much longer
can we suffer? Help us by signing the petition below in order to stop pollution in Middletown and
the rest of Ohio by these industrial giants! #FightforUs

https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/restore-air-nuisance-rule-in-ohio”
These are just some examples of what can be placed throughout the campaign. Another good
image to have would be a tracker to show how many signatures the petition has gotten
throughout the campaign to encourage more people to sign it.

What is the intended outcome?

The intended outcome for this particular campaign is to gather the goal amount of signatures in
order to bring the petition to the Ohio EPA and demand for the Air Nuisance Rule to be
reinstated. Through social media our interactions goals would be to
1. Gain at least 500 new followers by the end of the campaign
2. Increase page interaction by 75%
The way we could track these goals is by using the resources provided by META for business
pages that allow businesses to track social media engagement. The reason for these goals is that
the more followers and interactions, likes and shares, will allow the petition to reach more
people and to increase the amount of signatures.

Social Media effectiveness

In order to effectively use social media to ensure a positive outcome for the trend it is important
that you follow similar pages that involve environmental justice. Then you need to engage with
their post as well, such as liking and sharing their post, by doing so you will be able to build
partnerships and community with them, in return they will share your information as well.
Another important aspect is to tag people on these posts, tagging a person will immediately
attach this person to the post, so good examples of people or groups to tag would be the Sierra
CLub, any local news stations, senators and other legal administrators. By doing this you are
able to draw more attention to the post and depending upon who you tag you may make it into
the news and have more coverage for this issue and future ones.