Jan. 18, 2012 is the designated SOPA blackout day. In protest prominent websites: Wikipedia, Go Daddy, Reddit and over 10,000 other sites are planning to go dark to contest two bills working through Congress. The bills will go before the US Congress on Jan 24th, where they will vote to pass internet censorship in the Senate, even though the vast majority of Americans are opposed. The bills are supported by Hollywood and the entertainment industry - Silicon Valley, representative of many who want to kill the bill in the House, say they want to protect rights to free speech, privacy, and prosperity.
The campaign to boycott is mostly crowdsourced in that individuals, groups, organizations and internet business have created their own content to express themselves. Twitter especially has seen large numbers of avatars covered with a black box censored. Youtube, at the time of writing had over 30,000 video results to the SOPA search. Wikipedia is shut down - only with a message requesting Zip codes which directs viewers to contact their local government officials
WANT to PROTEST? If you would like to participate with changing your avatar or shutting down your website for a day here’s a great link http://sopastrike.com/
From Wikipedia:
“Call your elected officials.
Tell them you are their constituent, and you oppose SOPA and PIPA.
Why?
SOPA and PIPA put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites won’t have sufficient resources to defend themselves. Big media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for their foreign competitors, even if copyright isn’t being infringed. Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won’t show up in major search engines. SOPA and PIPA build a framework for future restrictions and suppression.
In a world in which politicians regulate the Internet based on the influence of big money, Wikipedia — and sites like it — cannot survive.
Congress says it’s trying to protect the rights of copyright owners, but the “cure” that SOPA and PIPA represent is worse than the disease. SOPA and PIPA are not the answer: they will fatally damage the free and open Internet.”
I’m sitting on a train to Montréal as I write this, so these Swedish Rail ads really hit me the right way.
They also ran as billboards beside major motorways. What a great way to remind people all the things they can do when travelling by rail that they can’t (or shouldn’t) do while driving.
This is not an anti-smoking campaign. The same goes for the opposite.
It all started with the personal tragedy of Vanessa Lynch. After the murder of her father she sought ways of fighting crime in her country South Africa. She started an organization: the DNA Project. Her father’s murderers went free because DNA evidence left at the crime scene was discarded, destroyed and not properly collected.
In South Africa, the National DNA Database has under 130.000 DNA profiles and there are only two labs that can perform DNA profiling onforensic samples.
“I would like to believe that by making a difference, I can at least ensure that my father’s life was not taken in vain by creating something good out of something so awful. Perhaps the fulfillment of the objectives of the DNA Project will ensure that all those lives in SA that have been violated and taken from us so violently, may too be given the respect that they and their families deserve — it’s time the majority took back, from what the small minority in this country have taken away from us.”
The video above is the second video ever produced for the DNA project.
The ad is paradoxical: a cigarette saves lives in a commercial where the lead woman dies.
This is the new campaign from the Dutch Children’s Ombudsman. It is all about children’s rights. Do you think the Netherlands is a liberal country?
The campaign, which includes both trailer-like videos and posters, translates the true stories of four Dutch children who have recently had their rights seriously infringed upon. We have all four stories.
Lemon Scented Tea, the agency behind the campaign: “Fortunately for both Lemon and Dutch children, the ombudsman himself, Marc Dullaert, wanted to introduce himself with aplomb.
While purposely provocative, we made sure this was a campaign for children by children. The stories are true, the scripts comprise the children’s own words and the films and posters themselves feature – yes – the children.”
For the posters the agency masked the real victim by interlacing his/her image with that of other children.
The campaign is fully integrated in the Children’s Ombudsman website. Visitors can respond to the stories and of course it is possible to contact the Ombudsman.
See also this (translated) behind-the-scenes page.
Overall tagline: “Every child has the right to be heard”.
The video above is the only one with english subtitles.
Above (and the poster below): the story of Sander, who, after his parents divorce, was forced to live with his mother. The judge didn’t listen to his side of the story.
Update:
All videos are now available with english subtitles.
As a socially conscious designer, I don’t always wait for a client to hire me to create something to support a cause I believe in. Most recently I created this design to support the Occupy Wall Street movement…
Posted by Marc | 18-09-2011 22:23 | Category:
Government
Nice idea from Prague. What is the best way to visualize the battle against dog poop? Shoes of course. Expensive shoes.
That what the did in this campaign for Praha 7, a municipal district in Prague, Czech Republic.
S..čky nejsou dobré značky. Ukliďte po svém
Shit is not a cool brand. Clean up after your dog.
Because of holiday I forgot to post this great campaign from New Zealand. It is an outdoor recruitment campaign, released in july, from the New Zealand Police.
They call it a post-Christchurch earthquake campaign and it’s aim is encourage young Kiwis becoming a cop.
The campaign shows real experiences of police officers on walls near where the events took place.
The stencil where made by street artist Otis Frizzell.
Posters made from the stencil artwork include a QR code with a link to a video with the officer telling their story and a map with the location of the artwork.
In this post the four ambient sceneries and from three of them also the video with the story.
And, not unimportant, all can be viewed on the dedicated campaign website including all information on how the become a cop.
But no information what aspirant cops learn what to do with artists making illegal outdoor work :-)
Don’t get me wrong: sexual and sweat shop slavery are very real threats to those who engage with human traffickers to illegally emigrate from their countries of origin.
Completely melodramatic and over-the-top, they remind me of 1980s “War on Drugs” ads from a time when governments decided hell-bent deterrence was more important than prevention and treatment.
See another after the break, and let us know what you think of the approach.
Don’t Buy It is a new campaign, launched last month, against the renewing of the nuclear weapons system in the UK.
It centres around three short films. Renewing is serious business. It isn’t the same as buying from a shopping channel, a colporteur or a market trader.
In the UK it is about £90 billion for a full replacement for Trident, the current weapon system.
Don’t Buy It: “The UK is living with its deepest debt since the end of the World War 2, and barely has enough money to maintain essential services, let alone buy a full replacement for Trident. As well as being expensive, Trident does nothing to tackle real 21st century challenges such as climate change, food scarcity and energy depletion, and actually exposes us to a host of new risks. With no reason to want it and no money to pay for it, the answer regarding Trident renewal is simple - Don’t Buy It.”
The video above reminds me of this video from the Protect the Human campaign from Amnesty International. A campaign from 2006 with also a shopping channel.
See the ‘market trader’ and the ‘colporteur’ after the break.
In the DRC, sexual violence is a community-wide problem. Rape, in the DRC has been used as a weapon of war and sadly continues to increase even after. According to the peacebuilding NGO Search for Common Ground, it is estimated that there are over 400,000 surviving rape victims living…
In the movie Hot Tub Time Machine, John Cusack goes “back to the future” and discovers that his friend Lou has become incredibly wealthy due to a little search-engine-that-could that he aptly named “Lougle.” It’s a fun example of how an individual’s name can become a familiar household term…
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