Name: Sophie Baker

*Social Action Research

Product research:

Product research:With the reading campaigns and posters their key word was ‘Read’ to get their point across very quickly and clearly. To accompany this is an illustration, most likely to match illustrations in children’s books, to go along with the word. Because the main target audience for reading is children to encourage them away from technology and to develop more long-term skills with reading the illustrations on reading posters are more aimed at children. Usually with animals or characters on them from children’s books. The colour scheme tends to be very warm and bright or warm and neutral to be more appealing rather than harsh. Especially given that they are trying to appeal to children more than adults and the message is a positive one which means the colours need to match this positive outlook. Overall the colour scheme is meant to be The fonts used for reading campaigns and posters tend to be in serif fonts because the vast majority of books tend to be in serif fonts to match the link between the posters and books. There also tends not to be any factual information but on a poster by the National Reading Campaign in Toronto they made a poster of a child reading a book with the text displayed in different styles and positions saying, ‘First it helps you to get to sleep. Then it helps them realise their dreams’. That piece of text is the key element to the poster but there is a larger piece of text that states, ‘Reading gives our kids better opportunities. It’s time we did something for reading. Join us at nationalreadingcampaign.ca’. The posters for the campaigns could be more informative but they are more in need of encouragement and educational matters rather than informative and factual.

Product research:

Product research:Posters and campaigns to promote people to stop using their phones tends to use imagery more than words and statics to show their audience what they’re trying to say. This is most likely because the issue of people using the phones so frequently nowadays we know what it looks like more than anything so the message is easy to portray through imagery because a vast majority of people know what a smart phone looks like and a lot of people feel about the negative connotations of using their phone too much. The imagery in these posters can be photography of people using their phones but the use of illustrations and graphic designs allows a more creative outlook of the message to be portrayed. Such as the phone growing roots around the users hand The colour scheme with these posters tends to be dark and cold because the message that they’re trying to get across is a negative one. Due to the use of smart phones being the key element to the campaigns the main source of bright colouring in these posters is the glow of the smart phones on people’s faces. With these dark colours and the connotations of a negative message the purpose of the campaigns is to raise awareness by informing and to promote people to stop using their phones so much and socialise with the people in front of them rather than online.

The client:The ‘Stop Phubbing’ campaign was originally a Facebook page founded on the 29th May 2012 by an Australian college student called Alex Haigh who worked at the agency McCann. Why this campaign was made was to stop people using their phones unnecessarily in social situations. The word originated by a group of authors, a lexicologist, a poet, and a cruciverbalist came together in the University of Sydney to create a new word that describes the rude act of someone using their phone in front of you to go on social media or other activates instead of interacting with you or the other people around them in social situations for the Macquarie Dictionary of Australia. In 2013 a short film called, ‘A Word Is Born’ was created describing the word as well as the campaign as a whole to make the issue more well know. As the word became more well known media outlets in the UK, Mexico, Germany, etc. began to work with the ‘Stop Phubbing’ campaign to gather statistics through survey's to back-up the campaign even further to help people see that it is a factual issue at hand nowadays. This is how the campaign is funded, they aren’t funded through money but media and word-of-mouth so that they stay relevant. And because the issue is about phones and the heavy consumption of social media in replacement for social interaction with the people in front of you it helps keep relevant for a relevant topic.

The issues:There is only one issue that is associated with this campaign which is to inform and eventually stop using their phones in social situations because to many it is seen as rude because of the anti-social and almost as a way of interrupting them and not wanting to interact with them either because being on their phone is their main source of attention at that moment. Some of the impacts that they have managed to achieve through their campaign is gaining statistics with other countries to gain factual information that ‘phubbing’ is a genuine thing and needs to be stopped. When the word had been created it sparked a lot of attention and as the statics came in it gather more notice through people online, on talk shows, by celebrities, etc. as a topic which is now known in 180 countries. Their goals weren’t like many others such as earning money for a cause and gathering members but rather to keep relevance worldwide to get people on board with the issue. Because they have a social issue they need to make sure that people are talking about it which is what is still going on. Back in 2012 when the word was created talk show hosts talked a lot about it but once the short film was created more countries had access to the term and campaign. The latest article about the term was in November 2016 talking about, ‘Is your partner ‘phubbing’ you? Researchers say phone snubbing is killing relationships’ proving the campaign isn’t out of people knowledge in recent dates. This is their main goal to keep achieving because with the power of word-of-mouth and the Internet talking about ‘phubbing’ people will become more aware and will hopefully take it on board so that ‘phubbing’ becomes non-existent in social situations.

Facts and figures:

Audience research: