New Mexico to launch new installment of 'Breaking Bad'-themed anti-littering campaign

SANTA FE — New Mexico is planning a sequel to its “Breaking Bad”-themed anti-littering campaign.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office announced Monday a new Spanish-language installment of the campaign featuring the Salamanca brothers will be released this week.

The Salamancas, twin brothers referred to on the show as The Cousins, are prolific hitmen for a drug cartel in “Breaking Bad,” which was filmed in New Mexico and generated a cult following over its five seasons before ending in 2013.

Real-life brothers Daniel and Luis Moncada, who play the twin brothers on the TV show, teamed up with “Breaking Bad” producer Vince Gilligan on the new ad, which will run through June 2026 on television networks in the state. The campaign will also feature billboards and signs on local buses, according to the Governor’s Office.

“If anyone can convince New Mexicans to think twice about littering it’s these scary dudes,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “It’s an exceptionally entertaining commercial that I know will accelerate the success of the Breaking Bad Habits campaign.”

The launch of the new Spanish-language ads with English subtitles come slightly less than a year after Lujan Grisham unveiled the new statewide “Breaking Bad Habits” anti-littering campaign.

The initial ads featured actor Bryan Cranston, who played the iconic school teacher-turned-drug kingpin 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.

The commercial has been viewed more than 50 million times, while a related volunteer cleanup effort has led to more than 10,000 bags of trash being collected around the state, according to the Governor’s Office.

State agencies, community groups and public schools have taken part in trash pickup challenges across New Mexico connected with the cleanup effort. The governor herself participated in at least one such event earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the “Breaking Bad Habits” campaign’s budget is roughly $2.9 million, which was funded by an appropriation made by lawmakers during this year’s 60-day legislative session.

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.

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

In 2008, the State Investment Office decided against granting a film loan to the producers of “Breaking Bad,” in part because the show’s plot was determined to be too culturally sensitive.

But Lujan Grisham has defended using the show as the central theme of the state’s marketing campaign.

“The governor has stated that the characters from ‘Breaking Bad’ will get people’s attention and help draw attention to serious concerns surrounding litter and pollution in a state that relies economically on outdoor tourism and filmmaking,” the governor’s spokeswoman Jodi McGinnis Porter said Monday.