It began with giant insulting notes appearing on neighbouring homes in Salford and ended with one of the more unusual TV marketing reveals of the year.
Over the past week, passersby spotted oversized messages plastered across neighbouring houses, with the increasingly hostile notes quickly sparking speculation online over whether a real-life feud had spiralled dramatically out of control.
Today, Channel 4 revealed the escalating row was actually part of a campaign from its award-winning 4Creative and marketing teams promoting Tip Toe, the upcoming suburban thriller from Bafta-winning writer Russell T Davies.
The campaign, titled Massive Aggressive Notes, uses five-metre-tall notes attached to neighbouring homes to mirror the tensions at the centre of the series, which follows two Manchester neighbours whose relationship descends into paranoia and conflict.
In a further twist, Channel 4 said the notes themselves were written by Davies.
The stunt was created by immersive activations and public art specialists as part of a wider campaign designed to blur the line between fiction and reality ahead of the show’s launch on 31 May.
David Wigglesworth, ECD & Creative Partner at 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.”
The wider campaign also spans LADbible, flyposters, digital escalator panels and high-impact outdoor advertising carrying the strapline Love Thy Neighbour.
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.”
Channel 4 also seeded fictional messages from the show’s characters Leo and Clive into Reddit communities, while the campaign features a keyed Volvo with the show title scratched into the paintwork as though caught in the middle of the feud itself.
Nic Moran, Head of Marketing, Brand & Content at Channel 4, said: “The creative brings to life the escalating neighbour dispute at the heart of the series through oversized “petty notes” that feel instantly recognisable to anyone who has experienced tensions close to home. The campaign is further amplified through LADbible, alongside flyposters, digital escalator panels, and high impact sites all anchored by the campaign strapline, Love Thy Neighbour.
“To deepen audience intrigue, messages written by Russell and posted under Clive and Leo’s names appeared across Reddit communities, blurring the line between fiction and reality. The campaign also features 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.”
Tip Toe, produced by, follows neighbours Leo and Clive living side-by-side in Manchester as tensions between them spiral dangerously out of control.
The five-part series airs on Channel 4 from Sunday 31 May at 9pm.
