Maybe it’s my shame, not theirs, but when I first saw this French environmental campaign as thumbnails on Ads of The World, I thought it was about Kama Sutra with snowmen. Then I zoomed in, and thought I was looking at a first aid ad. Then finally, I read the copy.
It’s a good visual concept in theory. (The models could be a little less modelly, but this is a Parisian campaign...) However, it would have been better used for an Alpine lifesaving course. The mental leap from “CPR on a snowman” to “saving the snowy environment” to “clean the slopes” is just too far for a casual reader. Then again, I’m not a skier.
Allan Harding MacKay is a renowned Canadian artist who has spent time alongside combat troops to capture their experiences for history. Some of his works hang in the National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian War Museum.
“This is a citizen’s action,” Mr. Harding told CBC. “I have art that has a power beyond my voice. So I am utilizing works that within my possession — assets that are within my possession — to shine a spotlight on things I completely disagree with in terms of this particular Harper government.”
In a controversial 2012 budget, the Conservative Majority Canadian Government of Stephen Harper made severe cuts to Veteran’s Affairs, which are expected to affect services for veterans.
CBC also reports that a spokesman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay, Jay Paxton, suggested Mr. Harding donate the works to charity rather than destroying them. But the artist insisted that sacrificing the pieces will bring more attention to the cause.
He plans to destroy four more pieces on Parliament Hill tomorrow.
As part of the implementation of their 2012 Budget, the Conservative majority in Canada’s Parliament introduced Bill C-38, an omnibus piece of legislation containing all sorts of legislation, including some pretty big changes to environmental law:
- It repeals the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act.
- It sets timelines for environmental assessment hearings and allows Ottawa to hand off assessments to the provinces.
- It gives the federal cabinet the authority to approve new pipeline projects and sets time limits for regulatory reviews.
- It makes changes to how permits under the Species at Risk Act are authorized.
- It overhauls the Fisheries Act to focus only on major waterways, not every single body of water.
- It sets out stiffer fines for industry players who break environmental regulations and laws.
Some of these measures have raised serious concerns among Canadian environmental activists and groups.
“Bill C-38 effectively allows the federal government to crack down on charities, including environmental groups, that advocate for better laws and policies; override National Energy Board decisions; “streamline” environmental reviews to speed up approvals; and, perhaps most disturbingly, shut citizen groups out of environmental reviews.
The attacks on environmental charities and gutting of environmental review processes aim to silence many who participate in decision-making on large-scale industrial developments. This move is not only undemocratic; it will also undermine the government’s ability to make sound policy decisions and protect the environment.
The proposed changes to Canada’s laws will weaken environmental rules and silence land and business owners, First Nations, taxpayers, scientists, charities and others who wish to defend the environment.
The future of our land, water and climate is at risk. And so are the voices of Canadians. Silence is not an option for Canadians who care about the protection of nature and democratic discussion.”
In response, The Suzuki Foundation, Greenpeace, WWF, the Sierra Club and others are asking concerned Canadians to black out their web sites and blogs on Monday, June 4th, and replace them with the stark message above. They also invite Twitter (hashtag “#BLACKOUTSPEAKOUT") and Facebook shares.
Being a national Canadian campaign, it is also running in French as #SILENCEONPARLE. See that message after the break.
The tragedy of dementia is about memories. The distorted reality of present and past. That is what this impressive interactive audio-visual installation is about. The project, called Remember the Person, is from the British interaction designer David Ingledow.
The idea is to make an environment to raise awareness for, and stop the social stigma that comes from being diagnosed with Dementia. It makes the user think that they should not back away and fear Dementia.
It is based on David’s personal experience. His grandma suffers from Dementia and has been in care for many years now.
Using an Arduino, when the user moves closer to the projection, the photographs from his grandma’s photo albums will be shown. These photos are memories from her point of view and represent her life.
David: “When the user moves quickly, the music becomes a distraction and the pictures change erratically. This is to represent people’s fears and unwillingness to listen to and understand Dementia sufferers. It therefore represents people’s negative stereotypes of Dementia sufferers. When the user moves slowly, they can focus on the timeline of pictures and what is being said in the monologues.”
What this project really makes so interesting is the interactive part.
David: “The user can then use the imagery of the nostalgic photos of my Grandma and the stories in the monologues to create their own unique emotional experience by using their past life experiences to make connections between the sound and visuals.
This focusses the user on remembering the person, where the person could be someone that they construct mentally, making the experience unique and emotionally engaging.”
The video above is the personal experience of David. It is still a prototype. I’m very curious how this technique can be used on a wider scale.
David Clegg from the Trebus Project supplied the audio of the monologues. Their aim is to capture the memories and insights of people with dementia before their words are lost to history.
The Trebus project is something we definitely going to write about in the future.
Here’s an interesting approach to raising awareness about the distraction hazard of texting and driving: oblige young drivers to do it.
This “candid camera” approach captures young Belgian driving students being told by their instructor that new regulations require them to prove they can operate a motor vehicle effectively while texting friends. While the results are a little goofy, the message is crystal clear. I only wonder if the lesson will stay with them.
Next June is the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship. It takes place in Poland and the Ukraine. Tom wrote a lot about FEMEN, the Kiev based feminist protest group. They have experienced personally how bad the state of democracy is (read the exclusive interview with FEMEN’s founder Anna Hutsol here).
A lot is happening right now in the Ukraine. Human rights violations goes on for years. Now it is about politician and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko who is currently being held in prison at Kharkiv and has been on hunger strike since 20 April 2012. The political pressure is rising because of this and the upcoming European Football Championship. And European leaders are thinking about a political boycott.
Amnesty International is not in favor of a boycott. Being in the Ukraine during the big sport event can give more pressure than a boycott they say.
“Politicians and sport functionaries that travel to Ukraine must use the opportunity to call attention to serious human rights violations and to demand that the Ukrainian government does a better job of protecting human rights,” Wolfgang Grenz, general secretary of Amnesty Germany, told the business daily Handelsblatt.
My Facebook friend and fellow blogger at work Jasper Mulder has delivered a fantastic idea.
Maybe you remember the Bavaria Dress. The Ambush Marketing stunt from the Dutch brewer during the World Championship Football in South Africa in 2010.
Jasper suggested something similar, the Yulia Tymoshenko wig that can be worn by supporters during the football matches. Because her hair is rather special, it is recognized around the world.
It can be risky for the supporters. But we also know that millions of people will see the matches on TV. It can be powerful like a Vuvuzela but without the noise.
A positive statement while having fun enjoying the football matches.
There are three possible organization who can adopt this idea: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and FEMEN.
I’m very curious what they think about this campaign strategy item.
And giving the idea more color I made three versions in a photo editor. For the Dutch, Spanish and Italian supporters:
When I visited North Carolina’s Every 1 Against 1 site, I was more than a little shocked:
Amendment One (SB514) is a proposed change to Article 14 of the North Carolina State Constitution that will appear before the voters on the May 8, 2012 primary ballot across North Carolina. Amendment One is not only an ideological assault on the civil rights of LGBT North Carolinians, it’s also a poorly written law that will have serious negative, unintended and harmful consequences on North Carolina’s children, families, seniors, women and businesses.
Stating that, “Marriage between a man and a woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State,” Amendment One aims to turn all unmarried couples — whether same-sex or opposite-sex — into second-class citizens unworthy of basic dignity and fair treatment.
The campaign does a good job of finding common ground between the interests of same-sex couples and those of a variety of “mainstream” groups such as…
Families:
Amendment One could interfere with protections for all unmarried couples: to visit one another in the hospital; to make emergency medical and financial decisions if one partner is incapacitated; wills, trusts, medical powers of attorney; private employer healthcare benefits; and domestic partnership benefits offered by many municipalities.
Seniors:
Many older people who have previously lost spouses, but find love later in life never remarry, even though they are committed to their new partner. They do this to protect the benefits their previous spouse earned including health care, pensions, and Social Security, and Amendment One may put those benefits in jeopardy.
Unmarried Women:
According to the Attorney General, leading experts at Duke and UNC law schools, and the state’s Women’s Commission, domestic violence protections for unmarried women could be declared unconstitutional because Amendment One legally recognizes only married couples as a family. A dangerous step backward for our state, unmarried women’s lives and safety would be left vulnerable to their attackers and stalkers.
And even Business Owners:
As reported by The Charlotte Observer, 75 CEOs — including the heads of several Fortune 500 companies — sent an open letter to state legislators opposing the measure because it will have numerous direct, harmful effects on their businesses and the entire state’s economy.
The site also points out that this amendment isn’t even about same-sex marriage, since Same-sex marriage is already illegal in North Carolina. Which is not exactly good news, but frames the argument apart from that issue so that even homophobic people in non-traditional families can recognize their self-interest in the issue.
As for the ads themselves, I love how they bring up the “bad old days” of racist segregation as a comparison for how this ill-conceived legislation would make many families, friends and neighbours into second-class citizens. The iconic black-and-white photos provide a stark message about the regressive nature of the proposal.
Will it work? I hope so. For the sake of all North Carolinians.
I could complain (with my usual rant) that these ads are overly art directed, but in this case that would be missing the point. The concept is solid, and the lifecycle of abused children is clearly communicated. This time, I think the fact that they are also visually complex eye candy does not detract from the serious and troubling message that “70% of abused children turn into abusive adults.”
Michael Stapf lies pale and weak on a hospital bed, .. next to a him dialysis machine. The young man hopes for seven years for a donor kidney, while the daily hemodialysis is his destiny.
With the action at the station of the airport, the foundation “For life” ( “Fürs Leben") wants to make attention to a situation that is every day over 12,000 people in Germany exposed. There are so many patients currently on the waiting list for organ donation - a lot over the years, some in vain. (more after the video)
The campaign was shot by by Mark Zibert. He teamed up with BBDO Toronto to shoot “Unstoppable.”
Shot in one continuous take on a rainy Toronto night, the entire set was mapped in 3d before the shoot for a quick and easy build.
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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