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Campaign poster research

Nicole Tunningley

Purpose are written in bold

https://www.ohio.edu/orgs/stars/Poster_Campaign.html

The main purpose of this poster is to bring about global change on a shadowed subject. People don’t really tend to discuss this subject mainly because in most cases they consider it fun to do (Dressing up) but that doesn’t rule out how offensive and racist it is to the people who belong to that particular culture. In another sense this poster is intended to raise awareness to the extent some people go for the ‘accuracy’ of their costume (painting their skin a certain colour for the ethnicity of the culture etc.) and how mentally harmful it can be to the victims of this as they essentially being mocked for being who they are. These can range from the traditional attire of the culture or the stereotypical representation of it and the people who belong to it.This poster was also made with the intention to change attitudes because it is so common now that people consider it normal and a non-sensitive subject, even that the offended are just attention seeking because they don’t feel that what they are doing is wrong.This campaign poster also has the purpose of building a relationship with the subject as it is an ignored situation because many people feel uncomfortable talking about it which is one of the main reasons why some people consider it an okay thing to do.This particular campaign by STARS has achieved their aim of infiltrating mainstream media, with this particular ‘We are a culture not a costume’ campaign, which I personally have seen on various social media sites. They have done this by activating a Facebook page and twitter to not only raise awareness but gain support. The people behind the campaign are a group of racially diverse students from Ohio University in USA and the group STARS were founded in 1988 winning various awards such as the Social justice innovation award. The poster itself has both the a legitimate person belonging to that culture alongside the costume/mockery.Fancy dress/Halloween costumes can be incredibly offence not just to people of culture but with many other stereotypes. For example, it hit news that both Asda and Tesco had to both apologize and remove certain products from their stores because so many of their consumers were offended. The products themselves were ‘Mental patient murder outfits’ they were to resemble people in mental institutions/Asylums but with blood all over the costume and a possible fake weapon. People on social media complained to these companies and explained why they were upset by basically saying that the image was distressing and stigma causing to people who don’t understand what it is like to struggle with a mental illness. The companies took down these products, made ‘sizeable’ donations to mental illness charities and made their own public apologies.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/sep/26/tesco-psycho-ward-costume-asda-mental-patient

Tesco & Asda:

This Barack Obama campaign poster for the election in USA 2008 had many purposes whether intentional or not.The posters main purpose was a very minimalist take on a election poster for Obama to be the president of the United states of America, they also aim to campaign for awareness that he is running and to changes attitudes about him to make him seem like the right candidate. This campaign was of course incredibly popular as Obama won the election and became the president.This poster is incredibly minimalist but it has had such a strong impact not only on the election itself but in the media, as it became very popular for people to edit the poster or make their own in the same style. They used the red white and blue colours to make up Obama to show that he is made up of these colours, like the American flag almost hinting that he is made by America for America. This poster also has the clear intention of bringing about national change as he was the first black president of the United States of America.The design for this political poster became so popular in the media that ‘Obama poster generators’ (seen with the montage above) where created across the internet. Parodies also became popular changing the image to match certain fandoms such as Star Wars changing the image from Obama to Luke Skywalker from the franchise. You also had people taking the other candidates running for president at the time using their face as the subject of the image and changing ‘Hope’ to ‘Nope’.The design of this poster was very good and well-thought out. I believe this because of the message it brought about, for example using the traditional red, white and blue can link it to the fact that he wishes to represent the country (with the stripes) or link him to the American dream of a better future which he may be promising them, if he became president. He also may have used the red, white and blue to cloak his ethnicity to show that it really doesn’t matter what colour your skin is when you have good intentions for the future of the country. Giving a sort-of short and sweet message that how he appears does not define him, but what he does with the position and power that will label him as the president that he would be, if voted for.It also has a sense of challenging the traditional agendas of the US, that not all of it’s presidents have to be white. Also, informing them that you have to keep on top of modern news or trends in order to interact with the people better.So, not only is the poster a inspiring, popular campaign poster to change voting behavior but also one to bring about change for the better.

http://www.obama-me.com/obama-me.php

The campaign arrived in many different forms of media, becoming popular worldwide with the intention of raising both awareness and creating community ties.Firstly, it started of with a filmmaker arriving by chance at a cardboard-crafted arcade built by a 9 year old kid named Caine. The man was impressed by Caine’s imagination and asked his father if he could create a short film on him, it was only when he figured out from his father that he was Caine’s first customer that he made his first move.He firstly decided that he would campaign online for people to surprise Caine by coming down to his arcade as a flash mob and play his games. He did this firstly by forming a group on Facebook but he initially didn’t know how incredibly popular it would become. The event was shared across the internet, even onto the front page of reddit and popular national news stations showed up to record the event. But it increased in popularity even still as more people showed up, it made the news, had articles written about it and Caine even had celebrity appearance at his arcade such as Jack Black with his kids. Other celebrities such as Justin Timberlake were amongst the people sharing the event on social media.It was with this increased popularity that a short film raised about Cain’s arcade encouraging people to enhance their children’s creativity and it was with this that the ‘Imagination Foundation’ was created.The Imagination Foundation was initially made to raise money for Caine to go to College but with as many people seeing what has formed from this one little idea, Caine received Scholarship offers from various Colleges as well as a free-trip to space. Due to the what amount of money had been raised the goal of the Imagination Foundation is to help more kids like Caine to develop their creativity and gain more opportunities. I would say with this that Caine’s Arcade definitely infiltrated mainstream media and created/strengthened community ties in the local schools holding certain event with the Imagination Foundation where the children will use their cardboard to create various different creative things.The impact of the short film caused more people to donate because like the subject itself, it was a very inspiring and heartwarming event to witness.

http://cainesarcade.com/about/

‘Carousel’ is an Brighton-base organization that’s main purpose is to create access to media production for non-traditional groups.Through research on their website I discovered that Carousel helps learning disabled artists develop and manage their creative lives. One way they do this that I have noticed is by holding/organizing local events such as rock houses or film festivals such as upcoming one called ‘Oska bright’. At which they will accept submissions from people to display to audiences at this event. Which is a good way to raise awareness and gain support for this non-profit organization. You can donate to this organization by fundraising or directly through the website and use their social media to raise awareness. The Organization are very personal with this subject as most of the organization themselves are disabled with board members too. The technique of this organization is to allow non-traditional/disabled groups to learn artistic skills in this creative genre as they shouldn’t be deprived of that just because they are different.

http://www.jcwi.org.uk/

The campaign posters for the JCWI (Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants) are very mind opening and clear on their intentions. The purpose of this organization and their poster is ‘to campaign for the justice in immigration, nationality and refugee law and policy’. The impact of this particular poster is to make you consider the reality of immigration rather than just what you hear in the news/media, as it is not always true. Many media platforms/people portray immigration as a bad thing, saying things like they have come to steal your jobs or abuse our privileges as British citizens. When in reality they exist just as we do, having a job to eat, pay rent etc. because those things are considered necessities of life and people should not be deprived of those necessities just because they weren’t born here. So they are also making people aware of the reality of immigration. Also, the technique was well thought out as by saying “For 7 years I have been saving lives and your life could be saved next” which is a very powerful way to make people consider themselves in this equation and how better off they are with immigration, therefore changing their attitudes on the situation.Immigration has been in the news a recently too, such as Huffington Post talking about the fact that some British landlords refuse to rent to people with a foreign name (3rd September 2015). Also, in social media such as Twitter and Tumblr you can see pictures of various different countries in the EU protesting to their governments to allow immigrant through their borders. This shows that campaigns such as these and the subject in general has definitely infiltrated mainstream media with the intention to bring around both global and national change so that immigrants wont be deprived of necessities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlawCTdZrs8