On Friday morning I met with my project mentor, Marc Stoiber, principle of Change Design, a Vancouver based firm to discuss the status and revisions of the project. We went over the new context and planned deliverables, which, for simplicity’s sake (not to mention my sanity), I’m going to try and outline clearly here, along with excerpts of what we discussed.
Ration Book Mailer
Print-based mailed artifact, released concurrently with the Simple Poster Campaign.
Book, approximately five pages, small scale (4″ x 6″) which simulates the ration books used in the United States during the Second World War to control the distribution and sale of goods, and to prevent hoarding of resources. The book would include coupons for the purchase of products under high demand and scarce availability, such as gasoline, oil, wheat products (due to use in ethanol production), water, and energy.
The reverse of the coupon pages would list conservation tips for the various resources represented, as well as making the most of slim stocks of the products. This would allow for the communication of the underlying message of scarcity of necessities, as well as subtly providing background info on the reason for the depletion of that resource. The artifact will be treated as a real object, and no clarification will be given on the fictional nature of the campaign. Contact information will be given in the form of the fictional government website.
Note: None of the deliverables are in a form even approaching a final version, so be advised, I know the green looks awful. The example is just a digital sketch.
Image Based Poster
This is a bone of contention.
If the idea of the scary future is to carry through, this would be where it would mainly be happening. The principle idea was to have an single-image based poster series for display in public locations (billboards, transit centers, etc) which would portray a grim portrait of a future saturated with ecologically themed government propaganda. Which is all well and good, and sticks with the original concept, and the whole propaganda idea.
The catch is, that since the other deliverables revolve around the idea of creating a false impression that rationing of commodities and shortages are existing now, it sort of cut the propaganda part out of the equation.
Marc suggests that by tying together the ration book mailer and ration poster with an image based campaign that uses the the same visual language of contemporary environmental initiatives (ie BC’s LiveSmart campaign) it creates a full impression of a current government initiative, albeit a one that is ultimately fake. The same sort of idealistic, warm and fuzzy imagery would be used, but the taglines would have a the vaguely manipulative and somewhat sinister tone of ideological propaganda. This views the target of the project as creating awareness of these issues, and how quickly they may arrive, and to some degree might convey the sneaky way they may creep up on us.
One way to unite these ideas somewhat might be to add (very discreetly) the 2018 date to the ration book, the poster, and have the visual posters depict the same grim future (which would bring up a pretty interesting contrast if it made use of the shiny happy imagery), if we assume that the initial ration book mailer and rationing posters are meant as a sort of teaser, then once the secret breaks that it’s fake, these posters get a bit more to the actual point. Yeah, I like it. Oooh, now I’m getting excited again.
Text Based Poster
So this is where the trouble-causing comes in. The idea is to poster these all around town, placing them everywhere from storefronts to telephone poles. The goal would be to place them in locations where the general public would be able to see them, and simulate the distribution of an urgent government notice. The posters would announce a fictional rationing “status” and have a discretely placed date locating it temporally in the year 2018. This hopefully would get overlooked by viewers, possibly presuming a typo. The poster would also have a line which directs readers to a web address for more information.
The key questions that were raised over this potential deliverable were the choice around whether or not to make use of the visual language of something from a desktop publishing bureaucrat in a government office, and cleaning it up and making it look a little better for aesthetic’s sake. That, and the question of potential backlash if the government logo was used were the main questions I addressed to Marc. His response was…vehement.
“What? Make it nice?! Are you kidding?! God, no!” His response on the question of the aesthetic was fairly clear and straightforward. He agreed with my initial desire to make it look as plain and boring as possible in order to keep the message clear, and retain its verisimilitude. On the topic of whether or not to use the logo, he was equally clear.
Marc described an ad that he had created for a small beer company that was rejected by the papers it was intended for, on the grounds that it was too explicit. After they were rejected, they took their case to all of the other papers, promoting the story as “the little brewery against the big boys” and got the story (and the ad) featured in newspapers nationwide. His recommendation for strategy on this campaign is somewhat similar, but a little more engineered.
Make the poster. Distribute it. Don’t wait for a possible backlash from the government, have someone respectable call or write to their MP to express their outrage over this “prank” being pulled on them. When/If the government responds with a cease and desist order, take the story to every paper/blogger that will listen, and play the “Big Government is Trying to Crush This Poor Little Student” angle to generate massive publicity for the project, and thus, the message.
Despite the potential for me to get sued or arrested, I’ve gotta say, it’s a hell of a plan. Guess I better run it by Alex though. On another note, a fellow student helpfully commented on my post of the poster on Flickr to point out that official communications would be bilingual. Something that I had completely missed. Thanks Graham
Flickr Comments
grahamcase Pro User says:
If it was official it would be bilingual…
Posted 5 days ago.
olivelife Pro User says:
awesome.
Posted 4 days ago.
