Don't Just Encourage Literacy, Pistolwhip People with It!

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Jeremy over at Pop-PR sent us a link to this alleged PSA, which takes place at Raphael De La Ghetto High School, where very scary things happen. (Really. It was like a lower-budget version of Pink Floyd's "The Wall.")

The purpose of the crunked-out video is to encourage disenfranchised youth to "read a mothafuckin' book!" Users are also led to Not a Rapper, the official website of Bomani D'Mite Armah, "the poet with a hip-hop style."

There are other important messages proffered by the PSA, including "Your body needs water, so drink that shit!" and "Brush your teeth, brush your teeth, brush your goddamn teeth!"

Word on the street is the video aired on BET and appeared on VH1's Best Week Ever. We sat through the whole thing for posterity's sake and, afterward, did indeed feel violently inclined to pick up a mothafuckin' book. Whether it so triggered the street hoods is another question.

by Angela Natividad    Aug- 7-07    
Topic: Cause, Online, Strange



This Time in '45, Hiroshima Was Devastated

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With war such a salient topic of late, it was only a matter of time before we started getting throwbacks from the '40s.

Owen over at Sinless just sent us the Aug 6th Hiroshima Ginsberg De-Classified Nuclear Test Film, a 12-minute visual assault on what was happening in Hiroshima in 1945, roughly during this time of year.

The video includes a reading of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Plutonian Ode." If that sounds like it'll add some nuance to your day (it definitely added sparkle to ours), by all means, watch. If enough people get all riled-up, maybe we can storm the Capitol together, say around 6?

by Angela Natividad    Aug- 7-07    
Topic: Cause, Online



Brickfish Wants Your War Ballads!

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Here's an opportunity to undo all the ickiness generated by that godforsaken All You Need is Luvs campaign. Brickfish is conducting a call for entries by people seeking to belt out a tune about the war. Some of the stuff is all right if not overproduced, but hey, maybe that's the fruit of UGC.

The logo is a little confusing. Songs from the heart or songs from the war? In our case, maybe it's the same thing.

Three lucky winners get $500 and potentially a diaper campaign cameo via Saatchi and Saatchi. Just kidding. Maybe.

by Angela Natividad    Aug- 6-07    
Topic: Cause, Online, Promotions



Decrease Capitalist Footprint on Environment by Capitalistically Claiming Part of the Sky

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For client Earthjustice, Human Ideas/Space150, Minneapolis launched a site called Adopt the Sky, which enables the air-quality-conscious to adopt a square mile of the sky for free.

We say "air-quality-conscious" because by adopting part of the sky you sign a petition for better air quality regulation. ("Anything to reduce our capitalistic footprint, right?" quips the press guy.)

The compilation will later be delivered to the EPA, where new ozone limits are currently being tossed across the table.

We had a lot of fun claiming some sky. Our only two regrets were use of the word "fluffly" (which now rings far too sweet and cozy for so sexy an ad site) and inadvertently purchasing space above Virginia. That was a complete oversight.

by Angela Natividad    Jul-27-07    
Topic: Cause, Online



Soldiers of Christ Commence Crusade Into Second Life

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The Jesuits, an order of Catholic priests founded in the 1500s, have decided to make Second Life their latest site of evangelical expansion.

"Second Life is not simply a 'closed' phenomenon," writes Father Spadaro of the Jesuits, who outlined a detailed plan on the benefits and hazards of the virtual world, as well as instructions on becoming a resident. "It is a real living environment that every day extends its frontiers and increases the number of residents. We cannot close our eyes to it."

After smut trades and regulation came barging through the doors, it was only a matter of time before religion came a-knocking gently.

Or not.

by Angela Natividad    Jul-27-07    
Topic: Cause, Online



Amnesty Gets Esoteric, We Fail to See the Light

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We're not really sure what's happening in this ad for Amnesty International by Grey Thailand, which solemnly (in Courier, no less) intones, "Not all domestic violence is visible."

In the top right-hand corner there's a wee little gremlin man with his hand raised to strike. He looks like an antagonistic character from a children's novel, maybe something like Freak the Mighty - mean, granted, but only two feet tall.

by Angela Natividad    Jul-26-07    
Topic: Cause, Poster



Blood Bank Draws Blood While You Sit There, Watching

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Adverblog drew our eyes to this video for Banc de Sang (the Blood Bank), a Catalunya-based org.

While watching the video we got that tense "dude, what are we waiting for?" feeling, ever aware that the red time bar at bottom was elapsing rapidly. The ending was a nice surprise. Great demonstration of the medium being incorporated into the message.

by Angela Natividad    Jul-24-07    
Topic: Cause, Good, Online



Hey. Third World Adolescents Need Porn, Too

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The OLPC, an organization devoted to bringing open source laptops to children in Third World countries for less than $200 a pop, have discovered an awkward residual outcome in their well-meaning scheme.

The News Agency of Nigeria has reported some kids at an Abuja primary school "have gone awry as the pupils freely browse adult sites with explicit sexual materials."

Oops. The OLPC has since reported they'll be including porn filters in the newer models of the otherwise-durable computers.

by Angela Natividad    Jul-23-07    
Topic: Bad, Cause, Packaging, Policy, Strange



Cause Branding is Cool, Just Don't Forget the Cause

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I'm pretty fascinated by this campaign YouthNoise has been conducting alongside Virgin, which uses mobile in ways that are creative, considering its challenges.

To raise awareness about teen homelessness, the company put together a 46-part novella via text message. Every day an opt-in teen received a couple of texts a day that continued the story. And at the end of the campaign, the more emotionally involved got to make contributions to the ending.

Considering the subject matter, the novella was popular, but sort of a buzzkill. In retrospect, Ginger Thomson of YouthNoise said she wouldn't conduct that same campaign again with such a sad story.

Can you imagine throwing open a magazine full of bummed-out models that seem to hate life? Oh wait, most of them already look like that.

more »

by Angela Natividad    Jul-19-07    
Topic: Cause, Events



Even Shoes Can Be Weapons of Change. Or Not

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We thought we'd seen the last of the (oft spoofed) (red) campaign but on the streets of New York, the red plague remains alive and well.

It made its most recent appearance in this Converse ad at left, touting (red) products as weapons of change. For those who can't read the blurry photo, the ad says, "Buy (Product) Red stuff. Join the movement. The time is now. Do something."

For a bold headline like "Weapon of Change," that follow-up entreaty leaves much to be desired. The only thing we feel genuinely compelled to do is trash the copywriter who put that desperate string of sentences together.

by Angela Natividad    Jul-16-07    
Topic: Bad, Cause, Outdoor