The Interactive Climate Thermometer

This video has been made by Y&R Interactive Israel & Mizbala for Oxfam GB as part of the YouTube Cannes Young Lions Ad Contest. Very smart use of the media.
See also these videos from Greenpeace, almost the same idea.
More about the contest next week.

Good 50x70 2009 winners

Regular Osocio visitors knows about the Good 50x70 yearly poster contest. It’s already the third edition this year.
The Good 50x70 Jury has finished its deliberations and settled on the 210 best responses. This year the judging was made harder than ever due to the vast number of entries received (4210).
The shortlisted posters are available to see in the Gallery on the Good 50x70 website.

I love this contest especially because of it’s worldwide approach. And every year it is a good momentum to evaluate how we look towards causes and design.
I choose two favourites in each categorie to show here.

Related posts:
- 50x70 (2007)
- Good 50x70 2008 winners

Child labour

GROWING LABOUR / Sameera Kapila / Netherlands Antilles

Every time you have unprotected sex, a little doubt is born

To mark the International Aids Day, all radio stations in Israel (20 different competitors) joined broadcasting together, and aired a 1 minute radio spot simultaneously at precisely 07:59, the highest rating time of the day. The simultaneous spot from the Israel Aids Task Force which was based on the insight that “Every time you have unprotected sex, a little doubt is born” asked people to switch radio station and see for themselves that they could not escape the “little” doubt.

The results:
- 1 radio spot, aired 1 day only, reached one third of the country’s population.
- The event made headlines and was covered extensively by all radio stations, but also by TV news broadcasts, internet sites and daily papers
- The number of visitors to the Aids Task Force website increased by 56% (Google Analytics).
- HIV testing increased by 41% making December 2008 the highest HIV test period ever.

The Radio Event, created by Shalmor Avnon Amichay/Y&R Interactive for the Aids Task Force, won a Merit at the 2009 One Show Awards.

Related post from the Israel Aids task force: Aids: Doubt Kills

What Goes Around Comes Around

New York based agency Big Ant International have won a Gold Pencil for Design (Public Service Poster) at the One Show Design Awards with their work for Global Coalition for Peace. Four posters were designed to wrap around poles, campaigning for an end to the war in Iraq.
Absolute brilliant use of the media and the message.

“What Goes Around Comes Around. Stop the Iraq War.”

Change the Web Challenge now open for submissions

Yesterday the Social Actions’ Change Web Challenge started. The challenge is about building innovative tools to help people to find and share opportunities to take action on the websites, blogs, and social networks that we all visit everyday.

The Web Challenge builds on the success of online competitions such as NetSquared’s Mashup Challenge, Advanta’s Ideablob Competition, Ashoka’s Open Sourcing Solutions, The Knight News Challenge, The Case Foundation’s Giving Challenges and The American Express Card Members Competition. 

Participants will build web applications that draw on Social Actions’ open database of 40,000+ actions people can take across a range of issues. Social Actions aggregates opportunities to make a difference from over 30 online platforms, including VolunteerMatch, Kiva.org, DonorsChoose.org, Care2 and Change.org. 

Greenpeace Design Awards 2009

Greenpeace Australia Pacific is hosting a new design award. The aim is to motivate the global creative community to develop visually striking artwork that encourages the public to support Greenpeace and take action on critical environmental issues.

The brief is to design a poster that delivers the message ‘Be a Part of the Action’ – this does not necessarily have to be expressed in words. The poster could bear witness to catastrophic environmental damage and in doing so, cause outrage. Alternatively the poster could actively encourage peaceful protest to expose an environmental problem.
Above all, the poster needs to raise awareness of environmental issues and inspire action.

Registration and submission may be conducted between 1 March 2009 and 15 June 2009.

First World Virgins

This video made by a Humanitarian Lion supporter is a kind of spoof on the Whopper Virgins video from Burger King. The video reminds us that millions of people cannot enjoy the world and asks us to help them by joining the Humanitarian Lion effort.

Read the story about it on the blog from agency Vanksen: Culture-buzz.

The Humanitarian Lion is run by a group that wants the Cannes Lion Festival to include a Humanitarian Lion category. More about it here.

Action Against Hunger: BEASTS

The Spanish nonprofit Accion Contra el Hambre (Action Against Hunger) received an ECHO award for their BEASTS campaign.  E-mailed to nearly 300,000 individuals, the message opened with a simple scene - just one insect, three words and an interactive button inviting users to see the next screen.  Clicking leads the user through series of graphics, where the insect is joined by other vermin, which crawl and creep into a pattern resembling a child’s face.  The words eventually form a sentence: “If your subconscious is able to see humanity where there’s only diseases, poverty and insalubrity we need people like you.”

The Intercontinental Advertising Cup - a global festival embracing local culture

I just returned from Slovenia, where I was judging the Intercontinental Advertising Cup (ICAC). The Cup is a global advertising festival embracing local culture. The Cup was established in 2007 by four regional festivals - AdFest (Asia-Pacific), FIAP (Latin America), Golden Drum (Central & Eastern Europe) and Art Directors Club Europe. The ultimate goal of The Cup is supporting and celebrating local creativity. Local ad makers have more chances to win The Cup than a Cannes Lion or a Clio. All shortlisted entries of the participating regional festivals automatically (and free of charge) qualify for The Cup. During judging, each entry is translated and, if not fully understood, explained by jury members from that region.

The highest number of Cups (4!) went to Nordpol+ from Germany for its poetic tv commercial Power of Wind for Epuron, a German company that develops and finances renewable energy projects.

Mankind Is No Island

Mike from metamike send me this heartbreaking film. It is this years winner at Tropfest NY, world’s largest short film fest.
The 3 ½ minute film, made by Jason van Genderen, was shot entirely on a cellphone, on the streets of NY and Sydney and took home the top $20,000 prize.
Van Genderen uses street signs and billboards to illustrate poverty and homelessness in the mentioned capitals.

Amazing how typography can hit you right in the hearth. I’m a little confused if the used music is the right choice for this film. Is it too much, too sentimentally?

Listen to this audio conversation with Jason van Genderen at ABC Newcastle.