Posted by Armando Alves | 18-07-2008 01:19 | Category:
An assault bus in the fight against global warming, is what designer Michael Bierut proposes for over sixty buses in Cleveland. The joint initiative with The Canary Project was named “Green Patriotism”, and is across the city buses throughout July.
The designs promote the bus as a feasible solution to protect the environment and the development of green jobs in the manufacturing sector.
West Hollywood’s WeHoLife.org is sponsoring a new online soap opera about HIV prevention, which is aimed at young men who may assume that the AIDS epidemic is over. As The Los Angeles Times explains in ”Gay online soap opera has a serious message,” “In the Moment” uses its “racy, unvarnished portrait of gay L.A.” to offer an alternative to traditional community outreach and social marketing efforts. The second episode is above, and the first episode is here. Episodes also frequently deal with the challenges to traditional relationships of an Internet culture in which people meet up virtually or have minimal face-to-face contact. Series creators are also using the more flexible social networking tool Ning to create what they hope will be an active online community around the show, which is already agitating for webisodes in Spanish. This video explains more about how the show was created on a minimal budget.
A very nice motion piece, Danger Global Warming is a music visualization project by Thomas Frenzel, German based interdisciplinary designer with a focus on intermedia projects and content generated graphics.
It is built upon a mixture of hand-crafted illustrations and computer generated elements that result in a fusion of artificial and organic matters. The hybrid collage principle enables a visual language that is variant and comparably consistent. Many components are kind of recycled, remixed or sampled and derive from the content of global warming issues or quote the project’s visual communication elements like the Danger Global Warming tape.
The video—based on the remix by Michael Fakesch—is about creation, followed by urban and industrial sceneries. The process of construction and de-construction reflects the proceeding functionalization and rationalization of the natural environment and society and shows some of the most severe impacts of climate change.
About the Danger Global Warming Project
The Danger Global Warming Project is a multimedia initiative developed by The Blacksmoke Organisation and supported by world-respected film makers, designers, photographers, artists, musicians, actors, writers and more. It has been designed to raise awareness of climate change worldwide with a mix of original images, sound and videos. Internationally acclaimed music artists including Coldcut, Trentemøller, Biosphere and many more have been contributing remixes of the Danger Global Warming theme track. Some of those have been chosen to be visualized by selected video artists.
The whole venture is supposed to subtly attract people and to encourage as many as possible to strongly change their mindset towards climate change.
I recently saw this while surfing around Behance. alldaybuffet - a social action brand for the creative community. alldaybuffet has nothing to do with food but it has everything to do with filling our hunger to do good. Our purpose is to connect the things we like with the things that matter most. Our concept is open participation. Our network is a family of likeminded people around the world working towards the same ideals. Whether it’s drinking for a cause, curating an art project, or stripping for charity; we want to get you Full on Good.
It’s a simple idea: Inspire Action. Change the world. Have Fun. Because doing good shouldn’t feel like a chore.
I found this really cool, different and innovative. In my opinion this type of initiative could really get a lot of individuals to join, especially the young ones and people from the creative field. :D More info after the jump.
This stunning artwork and flash animation is made to introduce the world to Eglantyne Jebb, founder of Save the Children. Twelve lessons in leadership tells her story of making a ngo succesful.
Shocked by the aftermath of World War 1 and the Russian Revolution, Eglantyne and her sister Dorothy Buxton were determined to secure improvements to children’s lives. Their goal was to create a powerful international organisation, which would extend its ramifications to the remotest corner of the globe. This was soon achieved – and Save the Children continues to build on this success.
A few months ago I discovered the website of the Mexican design collective Colectivo Aliados. Stunning activist design work but hard to understand what the collective is about because all was writen in Spanish. Now the launched their new site Colectivo.Aliados 2.0, available in various languages.
Colectivo Aliados is set up by Manolo G, Eréndida M, Alberto M, Carlos R, (Mexico) and Futuro M, (Colombia). They launched the collective in april 2003 with their first project “Aliados vs Aliados” to protest about the invasion in Iraq. They received about 60 posters and did the web distribution.
After that they started more social projects in the same way: everybody who wants to participate can submit artwork and the collective distributed it in several ways.
In the wake of the devastating cyclone that hit Burma on 2 May, the Burma Campaign UK launched a new video and poster campaign to highlight the ongoing disaster in Burma – the military dictatorship.
The new animated film ‘The Real Disaster’ was created by Ogilvy Advertising and is narrated by famous comedian Ricky Gervais. It tells the story of a little girl called Khin Mar, who survived Cyclone Nargis but whose village is later destroyed by the military dictatorship. The message is ‘The real disaster in Burma is the government’.
The video was beamed onto Waterloo station in London on June 25. The first part of the video above shows the projection, the second part shows the ad made by Ogilvy.
These two video’s are the winners in the Nationwide (USA) Cyberbullying PSA Development Contest organised by Sony Creative Software, The Ad Council and the National Crime Prevention Council. The purpose of the cyberbullying PSA contest was to leverage the talents of multimedia creators in a way that contributes to the greater good of the online community.
Above the video from Marvin Jimenez. For his entry, Words Really Do Hurt, Jimenez aimed for a sense of loneliness, and the thought of someone deliberately hurting another through the use of technology in the form of words on a computer screen. “The students involved in the cyberbullying PSA project did an exceptional job,” he said. “This was a great opportunity to expose them to communicating through video to support what educators call ‘differentiated instruction’, working with the medium of video on a very meaningful project.”
Posted by Marc | 30-06-2008 22:10 | Category:
Social aid
This is the follow-up of the campaign from Florida based Family Resources Inc. which I posted about before. In this stage of the campaign a new website is launched: ihatehimsomuch.com. The campaign aims to help couples get through rough points in their marriage. Initially, the project was supposed to promote marriage but research clearly showed marriage is hugely popular and widely sought after in the United States. The problem: marriages are frequently not well planned, not well executed, and subsequently discarded. The challenge became helping people build better marriages.
“Saving pandas is not our only mission. Over 10 million hectares of forests have been protected through our forest certification and sustainable forest management programs. Take a closer look at what we do and where you can make a difference.
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Really fresh execution and the message is also appropriate. I’m liking this ad series a lot.
This video from Defne (Turk & Greek Friendship Association) won the Kristal Elma Social Award in the category film.
The video shows a little boat and a radio changing music on every wave.
In case you don’t know, Turkey and Greece aren’t the biggest friends on earth.
Voice-over: “We eat the same, we drink the same. The songs that we laugh/cry, are the same. Is it friendship or what?”
If you ever visit a music festival in the Netherlands you know it can be muddy. That is what Dutch marcom agency Usual Suspects was thinking about when Greenpeace ask them to develop a campaign to reach a younger audience in a positive and appealing way.
They came with Fishmates, five different rain boots designed by five illustrators. The Fishmates are meant to support this summers ocean campaign from Greenpeace.
Another candidate for the Turkish Kristal Elma Award, the advertising festival. Unfortunately this ad didn’t won a award.
The visual from Greenpeace makes me think about a chocolat icecream.
Copy: If we keep being insensitive towards global warming, one fourth of world’s living species will go extinct.
“As designers we have a social obligation to raise awareness of the horrors that less fortunate people face. Tibet has been illegally occupied by China since 1950 and yet only recently with the Olympic Torch fiasco have these attrocities been recognised by the popular radar...”
“...Please note that this society does not condone the discrimination or slander of any race, especially the Chinese, as they themselves have no idea what has been going on. Thus the sole purpose of this society is to raise awareness of the facts and not to make judgement upon anyone, let alone discriminate against them...”
DATA is currently working on its first project, collaborating with some of the most renowned designers, illustrators, digital artists, photographers and motion designers to create a book.
Some confirmed participants are:
Adhemas Batista, Alex Trochut, Bram Timmer, David Carvalho (Karpa) Greig Anderson, Pawel Nolbert (hellocolor), Pete Harrison (Aeiko), Mike Harrison (Destill), Si Scott, Justin Maller (superlover and depthcore), Diogo Potes (six letter word) etc.
Although at this moment in time, participants for the book in project 1 are by invite only.
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An interesting initiative, in my opinion they should open this to more people because there other designers who have a lot to share. Especially those in the social design field like Kate Andres, the team from Change, etc. :D
Branding is a thing typically left to corporations with the money to invest in coordinated marketing plans, but Jerry Stifelman and Sami Grover don’t believe it has to be that way. The Change is the name of their firm, and they bring brand-building services to nonprofits and “good-for-the-world” businesses.
Visitors to the company website are immediately confronted with the motto: “The truth is your best tool.” Making use of an organization’s conviction, personality, and sense of mission are key to brand-building in their view, which they conceive of as apolitical.
James David from The Groundswell Collective asked me to collaborate doing a interview with Jerry and Sami from The Change. That gives Osocio the opportunity to start a new serie: Round table. We will do interviews on a irregular basis with all kind of do gooders. Straight from the war zone of the design industry.
Do you want to read more? See Groundswell Talks, the interview serie at the Groundswell blog.
THE APPROACH
Osocio:What brought you to designing for good-for-the-world organizations?
Jerry Stifelman: I was doing a lot of work for youth-oriented brands like Puma, labels that derived their appeal from a sense of authenticity. I’m good at authenticity, because that’s what turns me on. To create something I find some core truth that works for me. Yet when that truth is overlaid onto a brand that’s essential mission is to sell stuff at the highest profit --it becomes uh, what do you call it, oh that’s right, a fucking lie. I started to think about this around the same time I started becoming hyper-aware of all the problems we’re facing in the world. And SUV’s had a lot to do with this. Being surrounded by SUV’s really set me off. I did a lot of SUV flyering at first.
Sami Grover: I’m no designer, at least not by background. My educational background is in language and linguistics, and my professional background is in publishing, but on the marketing side. I’ve always had an interest in sustainability, both on a personal and professional basis. I found The Change as I was moving to The States (for love). I’d just started writing for TreeHugger, and was looking for ways to align my professional life with good-for-the-world causes on a more full-time basis. Luckily Jerry seemed to see the need for a full-time sustain-a-geek and brought me onboard.
The Girl Effect website starts with a remarkable typographic video, and after we get to the fact sheet where the girl effect is explained. Empower a girl and the future of the world might have a chance, as this work force in developing countries is a major force of change.
You can learn about the Girl effect and act on it, even if it’s just by sharing the video, getting the available banner widgets, joining the YouTube channel or Facebook page.
On a clear reference to the Butterfly effect, the campaign hopes that investment on girls could create a pyramid effect that would breack the poverty cycle in developing countries.
Bronze Lion Campaign in Cannes in the category Press.
This campaign is from Amnistia Internacional Portugal.
Copy: “He’s done nothing. He’s just showing Amnesty’s phone number.
Dicriminating is not human. Denounce it.”
Bronze Lion Campaign in Cannes in the category Press.
Very powerful images from Amnesty International which don’t need any explanation.
Curious if this post gets as many comments as this similar campaign from Amnesty International Slovakia.
Posted by Marc | 24-06-2008 22:26 | Category:
Health
This friday, June 27, is National HIV Testing Day (NHTD) in the USA. For this day the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made this campaign.
CDC estimates that 180,000 to 280,000 people nationwide are HIV-positive but are unaware of their status. HIV counseling and testing enables people with HIV to take steps to protect their own health and that of their partners, and helps people who test negative get the information they need to stay uninfected.
Silver Lion Campaign in Cannes in the category Press.
Very long copy in these ads from the Friends of Cancer Patients, but a really nice story from a child’s point of view. Click images to read it.
“Children who watch their parents smoke are twice as likely to start smoking”, that’s what these ads are about.
Silver Lion in Cannes in the category Press.
Ad from the Brazilian Santa Casa de São Paulo.
Copy: “If you needed an organ transplant, your name would be here
Be an organ donor
Let your family know”
This campaign from Switzerland, the Euro 08 campaign against Trafficking in Women, is an initiative launched by more than 25 women’s and men’s organisations, Human Rights organisations, gender equality offices, counselling centres, faith organisations and trade unions. The campaign aims not only to raise awareness on the trafficking of women in Switzerland but also to mobilise its population on this very serious form of Human Rights violation.
Every year an estimated two and a half million human beings are trafficked worldwide, 80% are women.
Silver Lion in Cannes in the category Direct.
The brief from the Latvia Road Traffic Safety Directorate was to develop a campaign against speeding and agressive driving. Not for people who are exceeding the allowed speed for some 10km/h, but those who are playing hide and seek with the police.
Another awareness campaign for the target audience won’t be succesful. Fast driving is considered to be cool among large groups of the society. Therefore organ donors certificates were issued directly to aggressive drivers during raids by the Latvian road traffic police.
Bronze Lion in Cannes in the category Design.
Y&R France made this ‘babes’ calender for the Surfrider Foundation. Ordinary beach pictures: babes and pollution. Very subtile but not a calender which you want hanging on the wall in your garage.
The design of the dates, isn’t that like Mendeleev’s Periodic Table?
Surfrider Foundation was created in the USA in 1984 by a group of Californian surfers involved in the protection of the ocean. Soon after Ausralia, Japan and Brasil founded their own chapters. In 1990, three times surfing world champion Tom Curren founded the European branch of the Surfrider Foundation.
Gold Lion in Cannes in the category Design.
Child labour is a big problem in India. People in India are averse to contributing for social causes because they feel their contributions won’t make a difference. The objective of this piece from the Care Foundation was to reverse the trend and drive donations towards the child labour cause.
Each individual’s contribution can help alter the current situation of a child; this was the essential message to be communicated in the ambient space.
A life-sized statue of a child, dressed in rags carrying a box above his head was sculpted and placed against a wall backdrop. The box filled with some weights was tied to a rope running over a set of pulleys and attached to a donation box at the other end. The words ‘Your contribution can end child labour’ was painted over it. This installation was placed in several malls with high volume footfalls across the city.
Posted by Liz Losh | 19-06-2008 17:46 | Category:
Drugs
This sample public service announcement by documentary filmmaker Gina Levy would never run in the United States. Four-letter words aside, the use of actual drug addicts rather than actors is generally taboo in U.S. broadcast markets. What explains this prohibition?
The other interesting thing about this clip is how this selection of footage is edited to send a very different message from Levy’s full-length documentary about this mother and son pair of addicts, “Foo Foo Dust”, which emphasizes their humanity as well as their abjection.
Gold Lion in Cannes in the category Press.
Anti Female Foeticide is a big social problem in India. Every year 1.1 million unborn baby girls die before they are born.This isn’t the first time I see a ad about it, shocking. Even more shocking when reading the text in this ad.
Ad is from AADHAR. Agency: Contract India, Mumbai.
Bronze Lion in Cannes in the category Media.
It is not the first time a egg is used as a metaphor for our head. The Swiss accident insurance fund (Suva) is promoting the use of bicycle helmets. This is not compulsory in Switzerland. The start of the cycling season in spring coincides with Easter. Painted eggs are exchanged at Easter in Switzerland. 200,000 real eggs were used as advertising materials for this campaign.
Bronze Lion in Cannes in the category Outdoor.
This outdoor Red Cross campaign from Argentina was made for fundraising after a flood. A home was built inside a lake in downtown Buenos Aires next to the Planetarium.
A sign read: The North of Argentina needs your help.
Over 60.000 calls and a increase in donations were achieved. And most importantly, the citizins became aware of a situation that until then seemed remote.
Bronze Lion Campaign in Cannes in the category Outdoor.
This is fun. These Large Scale billboard ads shows a shoe with a small stone. Imagine how to walk with this. Greenpeace is a pain in the ehhh ...
Silver at the Cannes Lions in the category Direct Lions.
Every year, 5 million children die due to malnutrition. However, we don’t hear or read about it because it happens every day. This is a forgotten catastrophe with no news value. The brief the Swedish department of Médecins Sans Frontières ask to agency Saatchi & Saatchi Stockholm: Put malnutrition on the agenda, make people contribute and strengthen the brand of Médecins Sans Frontières in Sweden. Since people tend to close their eyes and ears when they see or hear about starving children, we needed something different.
Next year we want a Humanitarian lion in Cannes.
Join and sign at humanitarianlion.com
About Osocio
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.
Social Edge:
Social Edge is the global online community where aspiring and practicing social entrepreneurs connect with others in the social benefit sector to network, learn, inspire, and share resources.
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Branding is a thing typically left to corporations with the money to invest in coordinated marketing plans, but Jerry Stifelman and Sami Grover don’t believe it has to be that way. 
Jerry Stifelman: I was doing a lot of work for youth-oriented brands like Puma, labels that derived their appeal from a sense of authenticity. I’m good at authenticity, because that’s what turns me on. To create something I find some core truth that works for me. Yet when that truth is overlaid onto a brand that’s essential mission is to sell stuff at the highest profit --it becomes uh, what do you call it, oh that’s right, a fucking lie. I started to think about this around the same time I started becoming hyper-aware of all the problems we’re facing in the world. And SUV’s had a lot to do with this. Being surrounded by SUV’s really set me off. I did a lot of SUV flyering at first.
Sami Grover: I’m no designer, at least not by background. My educational background is in language and linguistics, and my professional background is in publishing, but on the marketing side. I’ve always had an interest in sustainability, both on a personal and professional basis. I found The Change as I was moving to The States (for love). I’d just started writing for TreeHugger, and was looking for ways to align my professional life with good-for-the-world causes on a more full-time basis. Luckily Jerry seemed to see the need for a full-time sustain-a-geek and brought me onboard.
Bronze Lion Campaign in Cannes in the category Press.
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