You may have noticed mysterious, massive and aggressive notes started to appear on the side of two ordinary houses in Salford earlier this week – but now the reason behind them has been revealed. The massive notes left many passersby intrigued and led to a lot of speculation online as the slanging match intensified over the course of a week.
What was the reason for the massive, aggressive notes on the Salford houses?
However, today (May 28), it has been revealed that the messages were actually a part of an original campaign from Channel 4’s award-winning 4Creative and Marketing teams to promote Russell T Davies’ new drama Tip Toe – and the notes were even written by Russell himself.
The campaign, titled Massive Aggressive Notes, reflects the neighbourly antagonism at the heart of Russell’s new series and takes the highly original approach of revealing the salacious storylines and introducing the public to its main protagonists, Leo and Clive, before the show airs on May 31. The messages capture the escalating tensions of the series as an ordinary suburban dispute spirals dangerously out of control.
The five-metre-tall notes were made by immersive activations & public art specialists Creative Giants.
“The whole thing started to feel less like a campaign and more like a piece of suburban performance art”
David Wigglesworth, ECD & Creative Partner, 4Creative, said: “Nothing gets the curtains twitching faster than a neighbourly dispute. Watching seemingly ordinary people spiral into pettiness, paranoia and confrontation is oddly irresistible.
“That insight felt like the perfect way to welcome the world to Tip Toe. And once Russell agreed to write the notes himself, the whole thing started to feel less like a campaign and more like a piece of suburban performance art, with something much darker lurking beneath the open insults.”
Miketta Lane, Director of 4Creative, said: “This campaign takes the emotional heart of Russell’s storytelling and amplifies it into the real world through craft-led execution and deep collaboration across our teams and production partners. Playing on our “love thy neighbour” idea, it blurs the line between fiction and reality – turning everyday tension into something culturally resonant and disruptive. With a shared ambition, we’ve created a campaign designed to live beyond traditional media and get people talking.”
Nic Moran, Head of Marketing, Brand & Content at Channel 4, said the messages written by Russell T Davies and posted under Clive and Leo’s names deepened audience intrigue, causing them to appear across Reddit communities, thus blurring the line between fiction and reality. The campaign also featured a keyed Volvo used as media space, with the show title scratched directly into the paintwork as though caught in the middle of the feud itself.
What is the Tip Toe series about?
Tip Toe, from the multi-award-winning Russell T Davies (It’s A Sin, Queer as Folk, Doctor Who), is produced by Quay Street Productions (part of ITV Studios) and executive produced by Nicola Shindler (Queer as Folk, It’s A Sin, Fool Me Once). The five-part series is directed by Peter Hoar (It’s A Sin, The Last of Us, Nolly) and follows Leo (Alan Cumming) and Clive (David Morrissey), who live next door to each other in Manchester.
Leo runs a bar on Canal Street, Clive’s an electrician, with two teenage sons. But just as life should be settling down, the world around them is growing more tense. Words become weapons, opinions become radicalised, and gradually, two neighbours become deadly enemies in a tense, suburban thriller which challenges everything we consider to be safe.
Tip Toe airs on Channel 4 from Sunday 31st May at 9pm.