Bringing problems to the ‘light’
Taking creative media buys to a whole new level is a strategic planning in design and concept.
It isn’t common to see combinations of a well thought concept married with a well planned medium, while thoughtfully executing a meaningful message through simple and apt execution. This ad however, is one of them.
An ad by the Women’s room against non-physical abuse urges victims and knowing audiences to – Bring it to the light of day. By stating the simple truth that verbal abuse is also a form of abuse, it similarly leaves consequences as with other forms of abuse – only invisible.
Escaping sounds that cry for help
As always, Amnesty International’s awareness ads give this refreshingly smart appeal that is ever so simple and thought provoking.
Simple strips of black paper, printed with screams for help in the form of text, were stuck onto openings of various places where sound could seep out from. It puts across the point that escaping sounds are often cries for help and it is so easy to ignore yet it can be so easy to save.
What a refreshing change from emotional hardsell ads!
Save Lives with 50cents
Taking interaction with posters to another level, is the Misereor Relief Organisation’s effort to raise funds and awareness for vaccinating children around the world against infections. Cleverly integrating a large syringe with a donation coin slot, the more coins it filled, the more vaccine there was in the visual. Complete with hand drawn doodle-like illustrations, the entire poster was a subtle yet effective way to encourage multiple small donations for a bigger cause.
Speed or Explode
To demonstrate the impact of a collision as a result of speeding, the Rodney District Council took on a rather gutsy and artistic approach. Equating the impact of speeding to 10 grenades exploding, a car was physically blown up, collected again and reconstructed with string. The effect was more than just an ad but a sight to admire and behold.
A mind blowing thought to conceive, we must add.
The Haunt that never leaves
What a haunting sight it is to have a melancholic little child in red boots, standing at every corner of the road, as if to say “hi, do you remember me?”
The ambient campaign for road awareness began with the first 3 weeks of a young girl around the streets. 3 weeks later the message was revealed after much media coverage of the mysterious sighting.
It simply read “The Kids You Kill Never Leave You”. Impactful in a somewhat creepy way and arresting for its approach to create this awareness.
The Ad That Watches You
Is this cool or what?
Amnesty International, known for their very creatively executed ambient efforts for awareness campaigns, has yet to disappoint for the cause against domestic violence.
The poster/adshel features a small photo of a man abusing his wife but when the viewer looks at it, a small camera detects the eye which is connected to the digital poster and after a brief, pre-programmed time delay, it changes into a photo of the couple pretending to be happy.
This drove home the message very strongly that domestic violence is often hidden from view and gave them a first hand experience of it in a non-intrusive yet interactive manner. Some people interacted with it for several minutes, with each contact leaving a strong impression. The ad was also picked up by the media and many blogs which were similarly intrigued by the campaign.
Seriously we can’t help but say this again – Is this cool or what?
Bleeding Billboard
The first rain after summer brings about the highest death toll on New Zealand roads. To curb that, a giant billboard was errected along the roads in that season.
The disturbing ad features portraits of children that bleed from the eyebrows, nose, ears and mouth when it rains.
The effect is startling and transforms fresh-faces into car crash victims above the strap line: ‘Rain changes everything. Please drive to the conditions’. When the sun shines they return to normal.
The billboard may be terrifying but District Council claims that since they went up over Easter – traditionally the worst time for fatalities because of the holiday rush and first heavy rains after summer – nobody has died.
Our take is that nothing has become too morbid for today’s society and perhaps the only way to work around it is to make ‘morbid’ work for its own good.
The Price for Vandalism
The awareness campaign against vandalism in Pamplona Town Hall, Europe was indeed an interesting one. To put across the message that the ‘monetary consequence of non-civic minded behavior was hefty’, bright pink price tags were left at likely vandalised areas, showing expensive prices.
It read – “Taking care of your city has no cost for you. Pamplona pays 1,500.000 euros”.
From dog poop on the grass to shelters, the awareness campaign was done at low cost but was covered by various media – newspapers, television, radio and online. It continued to obtain economic repercussion on the media at an estimate of over $16,000.
Be On Our Side Against Child Abuse
Taking time to understand ambient ads work best when placed at locations where people have to stop and stare (likely wait). That was also how adshels and the likes, came about. Exploring more of such locations are potentially an unconventional medium in itself when turned ambient. However, until then, well thought posters which are strategically placed, can still garner the same support towards a good cause.
This effort against child abuse is made up of 2 sided flaps which shows an abused boy on one side and a happy boy on the other. A very simple and effective copy follows – Be on our side against child abuse.
Put your egg on someone else’s plate
The idea of having a paper egg on your plate seems quite a novelty and at first glance, it is either an ad for an egg product or a hunger awareness programme. This one being the latter, trying to convey the message that you might have had your egg today but someone else out there is starving. The copy is pretty weak and quite a kill to the idea we must say. It reads “Did you have egg for breakfast today?” followed by some really loose sentences.
Furthermore, the actual call isn’t for donation but for support towards this effort by attending a walk. For a good thing, we now witness the importance of good copy and visual collaboration for a good idea to be great.
Every Minute Counts
At a set time, twice a day, the hands of the clocks meet to tell a message – “Every 12 hours in Africa, over 2000 people die from AIDS because they have no access to care.”
The AIDS Solidarity aims to educate Europeans to the necessity of acting quickly against this situation hence the installation comprising of 321 clock mechanisms.
To end it off nicely, the website address is displayed caling for donations online, saying “Against Aids, every minute counts.”
Nifty.
Invisible? or…
Who doesn’t like a piece of strong guerrilla?
No one I guess.
We love it and we hope to see alot more of this. Simply making use of a child mannequin and a succint copy – the people at JWT Melbourne really nailed this in a cool and effective way.
Never underestimate the power of a message being pushed to the literal end and executed in the most no-frills manner.
Movie Mob is Coming!
The first Movie Mob (www.moviemob.sg) is returning to Singapore in May 2010.
This bi-monthly event to be run for 6 months (or more) was created initially just for fun to enable friends to gather and have an outdoor movie experience.
However it has taken a life on it’s own with plans to run it at interesting and different locations throughout Singapore with the movie title and location kept secret until the last possible minute. The potential for this event is almost limitless and it is currently being spawned into other variations as we speak.
The cost to run the event is minimal and we’ve even developed our own unique low power FM transmission system to broadcast the soundtrack for the movie to the cars. Many firsts in Singapore for this event.
As a means to promote the Epson brand, what better tie-in to show how easy it is to set up their projectors executed in an underground hit and run style of a MOVIE MOB.
Prisoners – could be you
A very similar piece of ambient advertising as the one done by National Geographic, Amnesty International also makes use of meal trays to convey their message about a meal in jail. Purely an awareness campaign targeted at students in Croatia, they bring across the idea that the meal tray is an average meal for prisoners in Myanmar. Distant as it may appear to be, these prisoners who are unlawfully imprisoned are students just like the reader.
Same execution, similar concept but a different message altogether.
Both of which are arresting, workable and commendable. This is a clear example of how similar ideas can start off looking identical but achieve very different results. We don’t always need to steer clear of ideas just because its “been done”, instead make use of the fact that it has already created a mental link, to reinforce the message.
Standing on the shoulders of giants perhaps?
Spreading Unity, Not Swine
When the pandemic of Swine Flu caught the world by surprise, the public needed to be educated against kissing (think European greeting) and to put on masks in public places. Definitely, convincing reluctant public to wear masks were no easy idea and thats where emotional messages of goodwill would work best.
Giving out masks with simple messages of unity, showing how you play a part in the entire picture, worked in this case. On each mask it said simply – “We do not need to kiss each other to feel our support”. As a result – all masks were given out and well received, sucessfully achieving its purpose.
Sawing Trees with Keys
Imagine what the world would be if everytime an engine started, a tree was chopped down.
Indeed, even the fastest tree planting schemes woud not be able to make up for the damage done and it was clearly what the public needed to understand.
This guerrilla, making use of a giant key put at a halfway mark on tree trunks, created the impression that every car key that turned on the ignition sawed down one tree.
Simple and clear cut, although understandable, we’re not sure wat sense it made to put one on every tree on the same road. Nevertheless, effectively eye catching.
A picture speaks a thousand coins
Many times, using coins and dollars to make up the advertising image may appear too literal or strong. However, it seems like the trend to make use of money to compose the message/visual is picking up and working well for most.
The Million Penny Project is a fund raising campaign that invites the community and businesses to collectively donate their financial and professional resources for a cause. A million pennies are equal to ten thousand dollars, and that is what the campaign is all about. Created with a collection of single denomination coins, with varied degrees of “dirt”, a nice art piece results.
This WWF ad however was much more interactive as it featured an empty ad with a magnetic surface, which attracted coins to its surface, creating an image as the coins were donated. Created in a series of several animals, there were deers, toucans and turtles – only visible with YOUR money.
We’re pretty sure there are many more billboards and ads out there making use of dollars and cents but untill then, we want to celebrate awareness ads that steer clear from conventional emotive messages and use our common media in refreshing ways.
Stop Stoning
Making use of ambient in a “polaroid frame” seems to be a popular option for shouting messages in the most natural way possible. Simply framing up a portion of the environment and giving it a message is much more attractive than a 100% processed ad. Not to mention, alot more cost efficient too.
In this instance, to raise awareness against stoning, brick walls and pavements were framed by a sticker, which cleverly showed that all it took to kill someone was that amount of stones.
Bound by a drink
Stubborn consumers are often a challenge until the hard truth is played out in front of their eyes. Other than an old ad we once came across where a real-life accident was staged on a highway, grabbing the (unwanted) attention of drivers followed by a billboard to say ‘it could be you’, the next less dramatic path to take is probably a more subtle ambient ad. This one makes use of table tops and creatively gives you the message with the same impact, without unnecessary gore.
Placing the audience in the first person situation of the ad – what we like to refer to as “passive advertising” is simple and personal, great for messages that need to speak directly to individuals without the pushy feeling.
Hold a hand with a bag
Transforming a paperbag design into a message is a task that is simple but not necessarily easy. In this instance, a meaningful message to bring child autism into greater awareness showed the user holding hands with a child whenever he or she picked up the bag.
As simple as it is in reality – that is all it takes to reach out to a child with autism.
Make every child count
In the affluent city of Mumbai, the need to raise awareness for educating street children was highlighted through transforming storm drains into abacuses. The act of which was bringing the school to the street, making it impossible for these residents in high-end estates to ignore. Being apathetic to this need, they had to be shaken up and made aware, channelling these funds to the Assema Charitable Trust for Children.
Following the hype of recent India-based movie, Slumdog Millionaire, we believe now is surely a good time to step up on fund raising efforts for the poorer communities especially in India.
Help make hunger disappear
Creating awareness for an existing brand, product or service may not be so much of a brand upheaval as imagined. Campbell decided to build a giant HUNGER word in supermarkets, made of tiers of stock and this simple act generated much sales with such an attention grabbing “interactive installation”.
Beside the installation was a signage, encouraging people to buy a can and donate it to the local food bank. As the people bought them off, so did the word ‘hunger’ disappear, implying subtly that hunger was being eliminated by every act of the donation.
Homeless and faceless
Raising awareness for the Weingart Homeless Center, they took an unconventional approach that made people imagine themselves homeless if only for a moment. They photographed a dozen of the 70.000 people living on the streets of Los Angeles and gave each of them a blank cardboard sign and had them write the same message: Before you turn away, put yourself in my place.
Together with the URL, weingart.org, they took those images, blew them up life-size, removed their faces and made them into photo-realistic cardboard cutouts. They placed the cutouts in upscale shopping centers in Bevery Hills and Santa Monica. Soon the homeless could not be ignored. This project not only raised awareness, but it ultimately raised funds.
Books are Back
Placing book titles of famous literature in everyday places, in sync with the titles themselves, the Galle Literary Festival aimed to create awareness for the festival, reminding everyone that the books were back in town.
This created heightened awareness so much that the tickets were all sold out for the festival, receiving commendation for their guerrilla effort.
Personally, it is one of the more intellectual stints we’ve seen in quite a while and really wished there was more of these to rant about!