As the campaign for the American Presidency ramps up, feminist groups are doing everything possible to keep the ”War on Women” meme alive.
While the Republican party was choosing a candidate to run against President Obama, candidates and some Republican legislators at the national and state levels were promising and working to limit access to abortion and birth control for American women. In the middle of this highly-charged atmosphere, conservative radio provocateur Rush Limbaugh referred to a women speaking out for birth control coverage in health insurance as a ”slut”.
This has sparked a number of backlashes to reclaim the word “slut” as an identity of power. And this is one of them. It invites women from across the United States (and a few elsewhere) to proclaim their sluttishness and literally put their presence on the map by adding a “slut” icon (taken from the iconic reclining nude female silhouette seen on so many truckers’ mud flaps).
From their “about” page:
Birth control is under attack in the United States.
Conservative members of our government and society have launched what is essentially a war on reproductive rights. They have made attempt after attempt to limit the availability of essential services to women, men, and families who need access to them to live healthy, productive lives.
They have also repeatedly made judgment calls on those of us who do choose to use birth control—calling our morals and values into question and referring to us as sluts, whores, and other derogatory names—without even trying to understand that the use of birth control represents an awareness of our individual responsibility to do whatever we can to protect our health, and to ensure that the children we bring into this world are born into families who have the resources and ability to take care of them.
“Sluts Across America” is the collective voice of the women and men in this country who use or support birth control, and are sick of being judged because of our desire to be responsible and safe about our sexual health. If protecting ourselves makes us sluts, then it’s time to redefine what “slut” actually means.
And there are many who have. What can I say? It’s a slutty world out there. And thank god for that.
This short film for Changing Faces was shown in 750 Odeon cinemas across the UK in April. Fans of Downton Abbey will recognize actress Michelle Dockery. Burn victim Leo Gormley plays the title character “Leo”.
Click “read more” to see the video. How did you feel after watching this spot?
The end of the 30 seconds spot? Often heard this statement in the beginning of the digital era we live in. It’s true. In our niche the spots become longer and longer. It’s one of the blessings of the time we live in.
That was I thinking about when seeing this impressive short film about homelessness from the UK.
The short film is called The Truth About Stanley. The film tells the story of an unlikely friendship between an old Congolese man and a young runaway, living rough on the streets. It is a story about friendship, loss, and the way in which we choose to deal with personal trauma.
It is a thing about I think about often. Why are we as we are?
This story is a great statement from a social marketing point of view. Especially for those viewers who have a successful life, who have it all. And they are an important part of the target audience. Because it’s a fundraising campaign for the The Truth About Stanley fund. They raise money for social enterprise The Big Issue Foundation and homeless charity Anchor House.
An amazingly simple and effective campaign film from Cancer Research UK, supporting their petition to ban branded cigarette packaging in the UK. I love ideas that bypass clever analogies and go straight for demonstration – the unvarnished truth. After seeing this, are you thinking again about the issue?
This visual statement from Earth Day Canada is highly discussable. The life cycle of all fish, trees and birds isn’t infinite on the long term. But that is perhaps too critical thought.
And artwork made with watercolor is very unusual. Just like the typography.
But I love it. It’s the combination of unusual techniques and a mathematical form which makes it an eye catcher.
Earth Day Canada: “It doesn’t have to end like this”.
I love this video. Hosted by Mama Hope as part of their “Stop the Pity” campaign, it features four guys from Kenya — Gabriel, Benard, Brian and Derrik — who are sick and tired of the way Africans are portrayed in movies, in the media — and even in social campaigns.
“The Kenyan men in this video told us they wanted to make one that pokes fun at the way African men are portrayed in Hollywood films and the media. They said, “’f people believed only what they saw in movies, they would think we are all warlords who love violence.’ They, like Mama Hope, are tired of the over-sensationalized, one-dimensional depictions of African men and the white savior messaging that permeates our media. They wanted to tell their own stories instead, so we handed them the mic and they made this video.
Mama Hope challenges the conventional approach to development. Our model, the Connected Development Model, is a consultative, bottom-up approach composed of three key phases: Listen, Connect and Enable.
LISTEN
Projects are identified by the community. Our partners are already well aware of what they need, so the first thing we do is listen. Together with the community we develop a project proposal that allows them to implement a custom solution for their individual needs.
CONNECT
We use all available tools to raise the funds needed to complete specific projects. Project sponsors range from foundations and corporations to individuals. We also leverage technology, social media and basic human connection to build momentum around each project.
ENABLE
Projects involve 100% use of locally supplied materials and labor. Our keep-it-local approach creates jobs and stimulates local economies while reducing environmental impact. Local designs and materials make operation, maintenance, and repair possible without outside assistance. The result is a sincere sense of community dedication that is essential for lasting success and true sustainability.
We recognize that each community has distinctive needs and requires a unique solution. Connected Development means striking a dynamic balance between support, sustainability and self-sufficiency.
It’s quite refreshing, after all the controversy of Kony 2012, to hear Africans telling their own stories.
It also reminds me of what the Burundi Film Center, the not-for-profit media training initiative my colleague Christopher helped start, is trying to do.
Thanks to Audra for sharing.
UPDATE: In the comments below, a blogger from “Africa is a Country” has a very different take on the video.
The whole post is worth reading, but here’s the meat (to me):
“People might want to see this video as a counterpoint to Kony2012, and it’s of course nothing like as egregious, but I’m not sure exactly how far we can move away from the Invisible Children with a video by Joe Sabia (who directs the Mama Hope stuff). Sabia is another Silicone Valley, TED-talking master of viral narrative, which seems to boil down to not much more than a heavily concentrated dose of American sentimentality, however that sentiment is directed. Mama Hope is another white-staffed NGO run out of California. They are doing something very different by attempting to engage very broad cultural currents (as opposed to, say, organising the world’s most self-congratulatory wild-goose chase in Central African Republic), but that’s not without its problems.”
Which is an important point — western hands are all over this effort, too.
I do still like the video, though. It seems too awkward, to me, to be contrived. It really seems like an authentic effort by these four guys to tell their story. But I could be wrong. I just blogged it because it hit me just the right way.
How about “a wonderful ad about acknowledging everyone’s right to love”?
This PSA had me in tears, and I don’t even love other men in “that” way. But that’s the whole point, isn’t it?
Just like with last year’s great campaign from Get Up! Action for Australia, the strength of this message lies in the way it portrays deep and passionate emotion that everyone can identify with.
Same-sex marriage is not yet legally recognized in the United Kingdom. Last autumn, the UK government announced its intention to introduce a same-sex civil marriage bill, but a “Christian” organization calling itself “The Coalition for Marriage” is gathering support to oppose it. The Coalition for Equal Marriage is a response to this. According to the “about” page: “It was set up by two guys, Conor and James, in response to a much-publicised campaign attempting to derail the government’s plans to move toward greater equality for LGBT couples.”
Not the typical road safety PSA to watch over and over again. But lucky enough I’m not the target audience.
This gruesome video is made for teen drivers. The audience that is used to this kind of imagery.
Director Olivier Agostini: “The backbone of the spot was to create awareness on the dangers of distracted driving without relying on the use of ubiquitous scare imagery or graphic car-crash footage.”
“More and more people undermine the importance of actually concentrating while driving - especially teenagers,” says Agostini on the spot. “People are so accustomed to being continually ‘connected’ these days that the standard five minute drive to the supermarket now includes sending two emails, checking Facebook, answering five texts, eating a cheeseburger, applying lip-gloss and taking a photo while simultaneously uploading it to Instagram. And that’s just on the way there.”
The message has arrived, the comparison is smart but what really shocked me are the mentioned websites in the video. They are full of information about road safety but nowhere is this PSA mentioned. A few paragraphs on a landing page about this specific topic are essential. Campaigning is more than just a video. A video must be part of a whole marketing plan. I searched but didn’t find the other parts.
This ad, by the not-for-profit Ad Council, seems to appeal to a certain demographic of parent: upper-middle-class, suburban, educated and fretful.
The good thing is, these parents tend to have a sense of humour about how obsessed they are with their kids’ safety and development. They are the ones who buy all the books and DVDs on parenting, read the “mommy blogs”, and pay big money for the latest educational toy that is going to mould their little genius. They have their kids signed up for every sport, art and intellectual activity available. And they are ironically self-aware that they look like lunatics to the child-free world. So these particular parents may actually listen.
In my opinion, even the tedious pace of this :60 ad helps set the tone for an absurd playground conversation, in which each parent tries to show off his or her knowledge of random parenting advice. It makes the long-awaited punchline pretty effective, as it shows they might not have their priorities as straight as they think.
But if it’s too much for you, there’s a :30 edit after the break.
We don’t have that many arms trade campaigns lately. There are too many other things happening in the world I guess.
I’m glad I received this ad from Amnesty International Croatia today. Because illegal arms trade is still a scary and important subject.
Amnesty Croatia started this campaign because their country don’t have regulations about trading weapons to countries currently in conflict.
The boy in the ad is wearing a shirt in the Croatian national colors.
I recently had the privilege of being invited to speak and participate in the 2012 Design Ethos Conference/Do-ference at Savannah College of Art and Design. The creator of the conference, Scott Boylston, is a longtime friend in the relatively small socially conscious design community and I was delighted that…
Some things in life are easy. We know them, we think of them, we understand them. And then there are those phenomena we would rather not know about. All the bad things … murder, rape, child molestation. We try hard to look away, and most of the time we…
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