With every powerful people’s movement for change, a symbol emerges--an image that can change the world. For the Iranian democracy movement, that image is of Neda, the 26 year old Iranian young woman struck down by a bullet to the heart.
Last week, her devastated family was ordered by the Iranian regime to bury her quietly and without circumstance.
Avaaz.org wants you to send a message of commemoration and solidarity by buying a t-shirt. Proceeds will go to support projects that enable Iranians to freely access the internet.
CEDC, the Center for Educational Design and Communication, helped Avaaz with the design of a t-shirt concept.
A mobile campaign to encourage and celebrate recycling was created earlier this year through a joint initiative in Philadelphia. Students involved in the Mural Arts Programme produced the painted wraps for each of the 10 trucks – inspired by global textiles from the collection of the local university’s Design Centre. The whole campaign tied in with the launch of a single-stream recycling program in the city which enables all recyclable material to be deposited via one receptacle.
What a great way to spread the word for a library!
In Kansas City USA Johnson County Library couriers are making their book deliveries between Library locations in some specially decorated, literary-themed trucks: Captain Ahab’s Fine Seafood, Benjamin Button’s Diaper Service, Kafka’s Pest Control, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’s Pharmacy with the tag line “Available at Johnson County Library.” The messages on the trucks are part of campaign to promote the library, the many stories that can be found there and to encourage reading, even the classics.
The March 18 Movement was born out of a tragedy. On this day in 2009, Omid Reza Mir Sayafi, Iranian blogger and journalist, died in Evin Prison in Tehran. The December before his death, he was sentenced to two and half years in prison for allegedly insulting religious leaders, and engaging in propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Omid Reza was the first blogger to die in prison and his death reveals that getting censored is far from the worst thing that can happen to a blogger.
The March 18 Movement aims not only to make sure that Omid Reza is remembered, but also that other persecuted bloggers around the world do not disappear into interrogation rooms and prison cells. The March 18 Movement would like to become a voice for bloggers everywhere who are in risk of being crushed under the heavy machinery of repression.
“Let the first blogger to die in prison be the last.”
“Young workers watch the movement. Raise your hand for safer workplaces across BC.”
Raise You Hand is a brand new campaign from WorkSafeBC dedicated to promote workplace health and safety for the workers and employers in British Columbia, Canada.
Raise Your Hand is a young worker movement focused around worker rights: the right to know about hazards at your job and how to protect yourself, the right to participate in making sure your job and workplace are safe and healthy, the right to the right to refuse unsafe work. Unlike many young worker safety campaigns, which take a ‘shock and awe’ approach to scare young workers from being unsafe on the job, Raise Your Hand focuses on the positive steps young workers can take to prevent injury and death at work.
Driven by the insight that many young workers don’t know what to do when faced with an unsafe situation, this movement shares that the first step is to know your rights, and the way to find out about your rights is to ask. The idea of raising your hand is inspired by the fact that many young workers have recently left school, or may still be in a school environment where you raise your hand to find answers to what you don’t know.
The campaign is found where the target audience – youth aged 18-25 – gather, at summer festivals and online. Key elements of the campaign are the Raise Your Hand anthem (see above) and buttons that people can customize and either wear or create digital versions to put online. The creative theme is inspired by 70s movements – psychedelic album covers, peace, love.
The 70’s inspiration came about because of the affiliation of grassroots movement with that decade. RYH is very much about empowerment and participation to join this movement to make a difference.
Billed as “the first poster that responds to people looking at it,” Amnesty International’s one-off domestic violence awareness poster includes an eye-tracking camera that changes the poster’s display when a viewer looks at the image.
The poster, titled “It Happens When Nobody Is Watching,” has been criticized for its being one of a kind (as opposed to a full campaign) and accused of pandering for an award (which it won). Berliners, be on the watch, this poster is displayed at a bus stop in your city. Have you seen it? What do others think of its efficacy?
The Ask Yourself campaign from Dropping Knowledge is a series of over 100 digital postcards which promote dialogue on social themes of global significance. Answers can be added as comments by clicking on the postcards and each card can be shared through dragging and dropping into emails. Registered users are encouraged to pose questions as well. See more below.
Q&A at its best: participatory, provocative and pertinent.
Posted by Marc | 28-06-2009 22:26 | Category:
Health
To encourage people to wash their hands with soap after using the toilet, posters made of soap paper were put up outside toilets across VietNam.
Soap paper is paper that’s coated with soap on both sides and can be used to wash hands like regular soap.
The campaign is an initiative from The World Bank and the Ministry of Health in Vietnam.
“This poster is made of soap.
Use it to wash your hands.”
PETA style! To promote the new campaign of Dutch non-profit organization ‘Animals Awake’, Dutch creative production house created a viral campaign that caused quite a stir. Ancilla Tilia, well known festish model, Playmate and elected Most Sexy Vegetarian, promised to strip down naked for the good cause on Monday 22 June. The show was announced on a lot of blogs, radioshows, Facebook, Twitter and online magazines.
At said time, a sexy stripshow started, where Ancilla seductively started taking off her clothes. Untill a man in fishermans clothing (played by a wellknown Dutch comedian), stepped out from the audience, knocked her down with a big hook and started to ‘stripping her alive’. With this campaign, Animals Awake wants to raise awareness that millions of fish are being skinned and stripped from their organs while still alive, while its proven that fish can feel distress and even pain.
The website was visited over 50,000 times in the first days and the film was downloaded over 10,000 times in the first few hours.
Bike for Bibles originated in 1984 in Australia with three cyclists, and it now takes place in many countries, including Canada. Money to provide Bibles is raised through the sponsorship of cyclists.
The 2009 Bike for Bibles ride will be in support of Scripture resources for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. The Canadian Bible Society will be distributing New Testaments, the Gospel of Mark, and the Book of Hope youth magazine to thousands of people at the games.
This video isn’t highschool creativity but cycling is my first love…
(Thx @gibarra)
Holstee is an initiative by New York-based innovation lab Incubaker. It produces a line of eco-friendly and socially conscious t-shirts with unique signature holster pockets made of vibrantly patterned fabric.
“It is our intention to broaden the expectation of what it means to be sustainable. Humanitarian Sustainability is a large factor in all Holstee products – 100% of our proceeds are used to empower entrepreneurs and dreamers in extreme poverty around the world. By partnering with Kiva ... non-profit, micro lending venture, Holstee will be able to directly connect with such entrepreneurs.”
To get in on their cause-related mission you don’t need to give the shirt off your back – you need to buy one!
Ad from LILA, Lega Italiana per la Lotta contro l’Aids, the Italian info organisation fighting Aids/HIV. HIV isn’t a life sentence. Being HIV positive is not a criminal offense. Governments must focus on education and prevention of the disease rather than repress.
Art Director/Copywriter: Andrea Castelletti; Photographer: Matteo Engolli.
“It could happen to everyone, don’t discriminate.”
Ad from FSC (Forest Stewardship Council). FSC is an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests.
Established in 1993 as a response to concerns over global deforestation, FSC is widely regarded as one of the most important initiatives of the last decade to promote responsible forest management worldwide.
The FSC label provides a credible link between responsible production and consumption, enabling consumers and businesses to make purchasing decisions that benefit people and the environment as well as providing ongoing business value.
This is a new campaign for Misereor Hilfswerk in Germany.
Passers-by can make a 50-cent donation by trowing coins into a slot in the poster. Measurement units on the cylinder of the syringe show how many coins already have been donated and how many injestions can be paid for. Misereor is helping with vaccinating children around the world.
“SAVE LIVES WITH 50 Cents!
Your donation sponsors a vaccination in Latin America, Asia or Afrika.
Thank you for your help”
Ok ok awards can’t feed the hungry but some of the winners at the Cannes Lions are too special not to blog about.
Tonight The Great Schlep campaign from the Jewish Council for Education and Research won a Cyber Lion. Sarah Silverman tells, in this campaign from 2008, the Jewish grandparents to vote for Barack Obama. Old Floridian Jews are the most important demographic in the presidential election. They make up about 5% of the voters in a swing state with 27 electoral college votes.
Read more about the background in this article from the Los Angeles Times.
Sales slow? Bad public image? This poster from Lunchbreath tells you what to do.
This must the golden tip. According to this poll on Treehugger 67% of you vote that companies using “sustainable” in their marketing are not to be trusted.
This theatre experience with the provocative title “Eye of the Cervix” comes from the BC Cancer Agency (Canada). The aim is promote their Cervical Cancer Screening Program.
Regular screening with a Pap test is important for protecting you from cervical cancer. Pap tests can find abnormal cells on the cervix. Treating these cells early can stop cancer from developing.
The BC Cancer Agency’s Cervical Cancer Screening Program is working to ensure all BC women get the screening they need to prevent cervical cancer.
Scooping up a D&AD Yellow Pencil in this months awards is the brilliant Newspaper to New Paper project from Dentsu, Tokyo. We applaud D&AD acknowledging the great worth of this humble project. Although it was responding to a brief from a commercial client project we think it qualifies as social advertising. Read the entry rationale to see why >>
Research indicates that American children spend 50% less time outdoors than they did 20 years ago. This month sees the launch of the US Forest Service Discover the Forest interactive online campaign in an effort to reverse this trend. It aims to inspire tweens (aged 8-12) and their parents to re-connect with nature, experiencing it first-hand – instilling a life-long love for nature by fostering a connection with urban and national forests. Read on…
Stealourideas.com is a new website made by duo Jon & Adam, recently left their respective agencies in New York, who were used to getting ideas stolen - and decided to make it official.
Just for fun I asked them to make a concept for Osocio and they came with these three ads (click images to enlarge).
It plays on a human truth about how a lot of social advertising is done for the wrong reasons (awards where the work doesn’t actually run) and how it needs to make a difference in the real world. Jon & Adam feel this is a needed message that your brand can get behind during this award season, seeing as how your site acts as an in-between for both advertising people and social activism.
“Every year hundreds of PSAs are done for the wrong reasons.
Help us to create social advertising that actually makes a difference.”
Osocio fully agree! As Osocio blogger Armando said last year: “We’re in the business of changing behaviours, not winning awards.”
And don’t forget to see our updates about the Cannes Lions 2009 next week :-)
Thanks Jon & Adam.
Enough about us. Take a look at Stealourideas.com and don’t be shy, ask a concept for yourself, brand or ngo.
Organizations are finally catching on to the idea of using social media tools like Twitter and Facebook to really spread the word about their causes.
Above is just one example: Invisible Children - which if you don’t know about already, you should - is using Twitter to spread awareness about their TRI campaign - $3 a week to bring home 3,000 child soldiers. This, coupled with their How It Ends event set to take place in DC at the end of the month, shows how mobilizing the masses around a cause can be a snap with a real-time tool like Twitter.
As part of their campaign this spring to coordinate efforts in over 100 cities in dfferent countries around the globe, the campaign also used tools like Youtube, Mogulus, and Facebook. For details on the “abduction” campaign, see here.
But that’s just one success story. Kevin Jones, founder of a VC firm for social enterprise and the man behind the (awesome!) madness that will be the SoCap09 conference in San Francisco in September, was so kind to chat with me about how socially conscious operations using innovative social media tactics to make real change. Read on for more standout examples.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) launched a joint online initiative on 8 April to raise awareness of the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges and to show what individuals are doing to make a meaningful difference.
The new web portal, www.ourworld-yourmove.org, puts the spotlight on the human cost of wars, climate change, displacement, disease, food insecurity and forgotten crises. It also invites members of the public to post videos and photos, and write about what they are doing to help others. The online gateway features images from award-winning photographers such as James Nachtwey and Ron Haviv, personal accounts from conflict and disaster survivors, and a wealth of ideas for anyone looking for ways to be involved.
The site’s launch in 2009 coincides with the 150th anniversary of the battle of Solferino, which led to the creation of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
As part of the online initiative, a new 60-second 3D video was made (see above).
“Simple gestures can make a difference. Make yours.”
Another campaign made for the international day against child labour. This video called Hammerchild is from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
“With rising poverty and inequality, and funding for schools under pressure in developing and transition countries in particular, the economic crisis is likely to add even more children to the 200 million who are already at work instead of getting a proper education. This is a tragic scenario just ten years since the ILO adopted Convention 182 on eliminating the worst forms of child labour,” said ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder.
Tens of millions of adults are losing their jobs due to the crisis, putting family incomes under huge pressure and making it even more difficult for poorer families to cover the costs of education.
“The consequences of child labour, often devastating for the children concerned, are also felt in terms of economic and social development in the longer term. Countries which do not ensure universal education will not have the broad base of skills and knowledge required for solid economic foundations for the future,” Ryder added.
Today, june 12th is the international day against child labour. Agency G2 Amsterdam made for Hivos and the European Union this international ad to let everyone know that even during a recesssion not everyone is desperately looking for a job.
218 million children are working under terrible conditions. The Stop Child Labour Campaign is an international campaign which seeks to eliminate child labour through the provision of full-time education.
“Stop Child Labour. School is the best place to work.”
Holiday season is coming nearby. And every year many dogs are tied up somewhere for various bad reasons.
Not only dogs are the seasonal victims, also rabbits, kittens and turtles.
The Dutch pet information organisation Dierz did a guerilla campaign today in Amsterdam to show this cruelty. Dogs made of paperboard are tied up at various places in the city. This confrontating action gets a lot of media attention.
The badge at the necklaces points readers to the Dierz website with a lot of information how to avoid the seasonal cruelty.
The Complaints Committee’s task is to handle individual complaints of differential treatment on the basis of race or ethnic origin. The Complaints Committee can also handle complaints of citizens who have been subjected to adverse treatment as a result of having filed a complaint of differential treatment on the basis of race or ethnic origin. Anyone can file a complaint with the Complaints Committee. After receiving a complaint, the Complaints Committee can initiate independent investigations of differential treatment, publish reports and make recommendations.
A recently launched campaign which mashes-up fashion and fundraising: The Uniform Project in which a pledge has been made to wear one dress for one year as an exercise in sustainable fashion. Actually there are seven identical dresses – one for each day of the week. Every day the dress is artfully reinvented via layers and accessories and images posted online in the effort to raise money for the Akanksha Foundation – a grassroots movement that is revolutionising education in India.
While we more often see fashion brands leveraging cultural connectivity The Uniform Project is instead an online fundraising initiative masterfully leveraging fashion itself. Great to see the Manolo on the other foot!
100 million sharks are slaughtered by humans every year. By comparison, only 4 humans are attacked. This begs the question: Who is the real predator? Agency Saatchi & Saatchi devised a warning sign for the Save our Seas Foundation. It was stuck on a Oceans Aquarium shark tank and warned of the predators beyond this point. However, it was printed “backwards” so that the warning was actually for the sharks.
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Osocio is dedicated to social advertising and non-profit campaigns. It’s the place where marketing and activism collide. Formerly known as the Houtlust Blog, Osocio is the central online hub for advertisers, ad agencies, grassroots, activists, social entrepreneurs, and good Samaritans from around the globe.
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