Governor announces 'Breaking Bad'-themed statewide anti-littering campaign

SANTA FE — Walter White is back — and he’s here for your trash.

A new statewide “Breaking Bad Habits” anti-littering campaign featuring actor Bryan Cranston, who played the iconic school teacher-turned-drug kingpin, was announced Thursday by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

The $3 million campaign featuring TV ads, billboards and signs on Albuquerque city buses seeks to capitalize on the success of “Breaking Bad,” which generated a cult following over its five seasons before concluding in 2013.

The TV ads unveiled Thursday show an exasperated Cranston, in character as Walter White, picking up trash on an empty mesa in the Navajo community of To’hajiilee — west of Albuquerque — and dumping it into an empty drum.

“Keep litter out of my territory,” he says at the ad’s conclusion in a play on words of a famous line from the show.

Cranston and “Breaking Bad” producer Vince Gilligan agreed to team up with the state on the ad campaign after being approached by former Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez, who is currently an infrastructure adviser to the Governor’s Office.

The governor and top staffers also had to convince Sony Pictures Entertainment to give the state the rights to use “Breaking Bad” in its ad campaign.

Concerns about litter are nothing new in New Mexico.

The Lujan Grisham administration tried in 2021 to revive a public awareness campaign from the 1990s — dubbed “Toss No Más” — to deal with an abundance of litter exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the governor said Thursday the anti-littering campaign needs a refresh, adding it’s more common than ever to see motorists dumping trash out of their cars.

“This sense of pride is missing,” Lujan Grisham said. “This sense of responsibility is missing.”

In addition to the ad campaign, the governor also said she would ask lawmakers during the upcoming 60-day legislative session to appropriate more money for statewide cleanup efforts.

She also vowed to consider other approaches, though she stopped short of endorsing a statewide plastic bag ban.

While the “Breaking Bad”-themed ads might generate the biggest splash, the new anti-litter campaign also features a volunteer cleanup effort. That effort includes state agencies, community groups and 28 Santa Fe public schools that have agreed to participate in a fall trash pickup challenge.

Similar efforts have also been launched in Albuquerque, as Mayor Tim Keller said city employees picked up 38 tons of trash during a recent week.

But Lujan Grisham and Keller both said cleanup efforts alone will not fix the state’s trash problem, with the governor saying there should be more consequences for littering.

While littering is a petty misdemeanor punishable by a $50 fine under New Mexico law, the statute is rarely enforced, and Lujan Grisham acknowledged state law enforcement officers are already busy dealing with high violent crime rates.

Without going into detail, she said one possible solution could be empowering non-law enforcement officials to issue littering citations.

For his part, Keller called abundant trash in parks, roadways and other public spaces a “huge challenge.”

“It has been something that in many ways has overwhelmed our communities,” Keller said.

Meanwhile, the state’s embrace of “Breaking Bad” as the face of its new anti-littering campaign marks a full circle of sorts for the show’s reception in state government.

The State Investment Office decided against granting a film loan to the producers of “Breaking Bad” in 2008, in part because the plot lines of the show were deemed to be too “culturally sensitive.”