Overzicht

Osocio

10 Artikelen
Achtergrond: Jay Huang (cc)
Foto: copyright ok. Gecheckt 23-11-2022

A message liquid as water: Save water, shower with a friend

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Bridge the gap between charitable foundations and younger people is the goal of The Envolve Project. “Using modern imagery for new media that acts as a call to arms for humanitarian and environmental causes” is their statement on Facebook.

These two video’s, flagged with the hashtag #donatewaterproject, is their first attempt.

Above is a simple message: Save water, shower with a friend.
There is another way to save water with a shower. Why not combine these two ideas?


Of course, I embrace the idea of reaching young audiences through modern media. But it is not really new, it’s part of the success of channels like YouTube and Instagram.
Besides that, strategic thinking from the channel shouldn’t be the basis. Never. It’s the message what comes first. And precisely that message is very thin in these two video’s. It isn’t sustainable and solid, it is liquid and slips away.

Another claim from the project: “The Envolve Project promises to never use negative imagery to guilt and shame viewers into donating. We feel that this tactic is classless and counter-productive.”
That’s exactly my problem with the second video. The used of the term ‘Dirty Girl’ is risky and can be interpreted negatively.

Foto: copyright ok. Gecheckt 08-11-2022

Cleaning up the Internet with alternatives to offensive words

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COLUMN - Een nieuwe Google Chrome plug-in kan je helpen beschaafd te blijven op internet. Een soort auto-correct 2.0.

I like the idea of a new plug-in for Google Chrome. Of course it doesn’t work because the biggest assholes on the internet will roar with laughter.

The idea is simple. A special chrome plug-in which recognizes offensive words and offers the user positive alternatives, just before he hits the ‘send’ button. Just what I tried as seen in the image above.

Agency BBR Saatchi & Saatchi recently hosted a workshop for the StartupSeeds teens in which they were introduced to the basics of advertising. The main objective of the workshop was to come up with a solution to cyber-bullying. The decision to invite the teenagers stemmed from the understanding that they understand best what it feels like and would be best suited to identify, tackle and fight the problem.

Out of dozens of ideas, the agency chose the one which addressed the offending party, the cyber bully, just before he writes the offensive message on platforms like Facebook, blogs and forums.

Even though I think the action will not be successful I like the sign. I’m very happy living in a country where I can say anything. But there is a question it often imposes: it is necessary to say everything that crosses my mind?

Foto: copyright ok. Gecheckt 09-11-2022

Transphobic ads win the day in Alaska

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The “culture wars” in the United States, today, are fought on social media.

Sociological Images shared this example of a campaign that ran against a proposed ballot proposition (“Prop 5”) in Anchorage, Alaska, that would have extended citywide anti-discrimination protections to sexual orientation and transgender identity:

SI’s Amy L. Stone writes,

“In addition to the use of stereotypically-presented “transvestites” to represent all transgender individuals as grotesque and laughable, the ads also argue that employers should have the right to discriminate if they think their customers are prejudiced toward a particular group or uncomfortable with them in certain jobs — an argument that has been used to resist allowing racial minorities and women into various careers. The ads also suggest that Anchorage is already sufficiently tolerant and thus doesn’t need to address the issues Proposition 5 supporters claimed were a problem.”

Ads that raise fears about transvestites teaching in the classroom have been used since the 1970s during ballot measure campaigns, and the Religious Right has been raising concerns about transgender women in women’s bathrooms since the late 1980s. These two ads from the Anchorage Proposition 5 campaign are among the newest additions to the long tradition of ads that rely on stereotypes of LGBT individuals as predatory, dangerous to have around children, and having ulterior motives.

Foto: copyright ok. Gecheckt 03-03-2022

Interactive storytelling: “My Life as a Refugee”

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There aren’t many interactive campaigns made by non-profits. It’s a budget thing I guess. This new interactive campaign from the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, is surprisingly simple but very good.

The interactive story of UNHCR is based on the fact that we have to make thousands of choices every day. Usually small, insignificant choices. That does not apply to refugees. Their choices are often crucial.

In this campaign we are refugees. We play the lead role, we must make choices.

UNHCR: My Life as a Refugee

The role play revolves around three main characters who have been forced to flee. Months or years of narrative are compressed into each of the stories. Players have to make decisions along the way in order to reach safety. The events and outcome of each story depend on the decisions that the player makes, resulting in a potentially different experience every time.

“Have you got what it takes to survive?”

My Life as a Refugee engages and educates players, compelling them to wrestle with the same perilous dilemmas faced by millions of refugees worldwide.

The campaign is an app available for iPhone and Android.

While playing this app I asked myself for whom this campaign is intended. It isn’t for the refugee fieldworkers or policymakers. It is educational therefore I think the best place to experience is at school or workshops.

Foto: copyright ok. Gecheckt 23-11-2022

De stem van autistische Carly

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Campaigning about Autism is one of the most difficult things to do. Autism comes in many variants and it is hard to recognize the signs. The last I wrote about an Autism awareness campaign endorsed this again.

This new campaign from Canada is a much better attempt. And there is a reason for it. It comes from the personal story of Carly Fleischmann, a 17 year old who was diagnosed with severe autism at age 2.
Doctors predicted that she would never intellectually develop beyond the abilities of a small child. Although she made some progress after years of intensive behavioral and communication therapy, Carly remained largely unreachable. Then, at the age of ten, she had a breakthrough.
While working with her devoted therapists Howie and Barb, Carly reached over to their laptop and typed in “HELP TEETH HURT,” much to everyone’s astonishment. This was the beginning of Carly’s journey toward self-realization.

Carly Fleischmann:

“Autism has locked me inside a body I cannot control.”
“Everyone has an inner voice. I found a way to let mine out.”

A few days ago a dedicated campaign website was launched inspired directly by Carly’s writing. That’s one of the things Carly did, writing a book with her father about her life.
On page 362 of the book she describes how the simplest outing, visiting a coffee shop, can quickly becoming overwhelming for those with autism.
It is the scene in the video below. The website shows the same scene in a interactive web video format.

Foto: Sargasso achtergrond wereldbol

Google Maps voor blindengeleidehonden

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KNGF Geleidehonden: Google Maps for Guide Dogs

A new nifty Google Maps tool. Getting safely from A to B with a Guide Dog with Google Maps.
It really works, check this route (and press the ‘Get Directions’ button).

For blind people, getting from A to B is often a challenging route. Guide dogs enable blind people to safely, easily and independently take to the streets. This is why KNGF Geleidehonden (The Royal Dutch Guide Dog Foundation) trains puppies to be guide dogs.

The only thing we have to wait for is a smartphone made for dogs :-)

Previous KNGF Geleidehonden campaigns:
– Guide Dog on the Catwalk
– Sunglasses for KNGF Guidedogs

Related Guide Dog posts:
– The Guide Dog Interviews
– How do you show support for someone who can’t see?
– Guide-cat

Foto: copyright ok. Gecheckt 02-11-2022

Homoseksuele apologie

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This is a text-only “campaign”, but it just may be one of the finest PR wins of the year in the struggle for gay rights in the United States.

Amy Koch is a former member of the Minnesota Senate and its former Majority Leader. She is a vocal opponent of same-sex marraige, and in 2009 she tried to add language to the Minnesota Constitution declaring “A marriage between a man and a woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in Minnesota.”

Ms. Koch, who is married, suddenly resigned her public position this month when confronted by colleagues about alleged infidelity with a male staffer.

This flies in the face of the “pro-marriage” movement’s claim that the biggest threat to traditional family structure is the redefinition of the legal institution of wedlock. From Minnesota for Marriage‘s site:

“When marriage ceases to have its historic meaning and understanding, over time fewer and fewer people will marry. We will have an inevitable increase in children born out of wedlock, an increase in fatherlessness, a resulting increase if female and child poverty, and a higher incidence of all the documented social ills associated with children being raised in a home without their married biological parents.”

Foto: Sargasso achtergrond wereldbol

Thank God – Condoms protect

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Jugend Gegen Aids made this amazing online project with Crying Mary. She shed a tear every time someone like the facebook Page of of the German NGO.
It is a message for the Catholic Church who refuses to give up it’s opposition to condom use.
Check the Facebook Page with a live stream showing Virgin Mary.
See how it works in the video below.

Every year about 2 million human lives are lost to the effects of AIDS, and the number of newly infected people is even higher. The simplest way to protect yourself from infection is to use condoms.

Advertiser:
Jugend Gegen Aids
Additional credits:
Creative Director: Oliver Drost, Christian Thron
Projectmanager: Steffen Esders, Benjamin Fischer, Sophia Boddin
Art Director: Burkhard Müller
Copywriter: Svenja Eggers, Nils Kock, Sebastian Peters
Designer: Robin Janitz, Monika Weryha
Motion-Designer: Markus Haken, Axel Rudolph
Programmerer: Jannick Garthen
Studio: GERMAN WAHNSINN
Source:
Invisible red

Foto: Sargasso achtergrond wereldbol

Plant een gedachte en zie hem groeien

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There is a lot to read on the internet about climate change. Too much maybe.
Heimat-Berlin devised a way to make this overload visually pleasant. They called it the ECOSPHERE Project.

It is made for the COP17 Climate Change Conference held in Durban, South Africa right now. It became a project from CNN International for its coverage of the conference.

The idea is that you, the visitor, plant a thought with a tweet. And watch it grow with other submissions. Which makes it a real-time view of the global climate change discussion. Each submitted tweet will stimulate growth in the individual topic plants causing some plants to grow larger or faster than others depending on how the conversation is evolving. The result is an instant snapshot of how the world sees climate change.

The ECOSPHERE Project is a fascinating snapshot of the global climate discussion I experienced myself tonight. It is a journey for hours or days. Because of the used technique, the microsite is built on webGL, Google Chrome or Firefox is required.

Heimat-Berlin also have the ECOSPHERE hub inside the conference in Durban complete with real-time hologram and large format screen sharing the climate change thoughts of thousands with the delegates. See the photo’s of the hologram on Flickr.

Foto: Sargasso achtergrond wereldbol

Bankiers zijn meestal menselijk

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This video is from BankTrack, a global network of civil society organisations and individuals tracking the operations of the private financial sector and its effect on people and the planet. The primary objective is to promote disinvestment in coal power plants.