Extended Ribbon

Another great take on the Yellow Ribbon from Clay Bennett.

Previously:
Tattered Ribbon
Infinite Ribbon

Islamic Superheroes

The 99 is a new comic book which aims to give Islamic children positive cultural role models in the style of American superheroes (even using the talents of former Marvel and DC writers and artists). The 99 was created by Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, whose work as a clinical psychologist has focused on building cross-cultural tolerance and understanding. Find out more about The 99 here.

Abstinence Programs Have Zero Effect

A recent study from the non-partisan Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. concludes that "abstinence only" sex-education classes, which have been a darling of the current administration, have absolutely NO effect on young people. The multi-year study found:

...that youth in the four evaluated programs were no more likely than youth not in the programs to have abstained from sex in the four to six years after they began participating in the study. Youth in both groups who reported having had sex also had similar numbers of sexual partners and had initiated sex at the same average age.

Read more from the report here.

Ethanol Is Not Green

A recent report from Stanford University concludes that the much hyped corn based Ethanol is not only NOT a "clean-burning" eco-fuel, but that in the long run it may cause more deaths than traditional gasoline. According to Mark Z. Jacobson, the scientist that conducted the research:

"In our study, E85 increased ozone-related mortalities in the United States by about 200 deaths per year compared to gasoline, with about 120 of those deaths occurring in Los Angeles," Jacobson said. "These mortality rates represent an increase of about 4 percent in the U.S. and 9 percent in Los Angeles above the projected ozone-related death rates for gasoline-fueled vehicles in 2020."

Read more about the report's conclusions here.

Shareholder Activism In Action

Denver based, Newmont Mining Company, has agreed to an independent review of its international social and environmental impact, thanks to the efforts of shareholder activists. From a recent Christian Science Monitor article:

The shareholder resolution recommends that independent members of the company's board of directors – not management – conduct the global review and produce a report.

"It will contain the good, bad, and the ugly, but we're not necessarily afraid of that," says Newmont spokesman Omar Jabara. "We do need to know where we can improve. There's nothing worse than having an issue out there and not knowing about it until it's too late or festered into a big problem."

Whether the report becomes a "greenwash" or truly credible depends on its implementation, says Julie Tanner, corporate advocacy coordinator with Christian Brothers Investment Services, a Catholic SRI firm based in New York, which led the successful shareholder effort.

Read the entire article here.

Chocolate Activism

Pressured by large corporate manufacturers, the FDA is considering changing the legal definition of chocolate to allow artificial ingredients and fat substitute to replace the classic ingredients. The Don't Mess With Our Chocolate campaign, hosted on the family owned chocolate company Guittard's server, is the leading the charge to protect consumers from disingenuous packaging. Read more and register your comments with the FDA (you have until June 25th) at DontMessWithOurChocolate.com.

Thanks Mica!

Vegetable Weapons

Love these photographs of women holding guns made from the vegetables in their favorite recipes by Japanese artist Tsuyoshi Ozawa.

Afterwards the dish is cooked and shared by the artist and subject.

Additional images here, here, here, and here.


via Sum1

Bill Hicks on Marketing

As usual a comedian has to say for us, what many of us just think about the field of marketing. Ah Bill Hicks, we miss you...



via Word Soup

A Site for Social Design

A Site for Social Design, while still relatively new, is already a great introduction to the world of art and design focused on positive social change. The site, which is a creation of the German "think tank for social design and organizational excellence" Systemic Consulting Group, features galleries of great projects, forums for discussion, and a even history of social design.

Crispin Glover on Corporations

While David Lynch's comment about product placement was amusing it's also nice to hear a more nuanced discussion of the problem with corporate movie making from Crispin Glover on VBS.TV.

Thanks Mica!

Feminist vs. Fox

What happens when a feminist writer/activist goes on Fox to discuss violence against women?
Jennifer Pozner, director of Women In Media and News (WIMN), decided to find out. You can read about her appearance and why she agreed to be a guest speaker on Hannity & Colmes (after initially declining) on the WIMN blog. You can also watch her on the show (or read the transcript if you can't stomach the actual program).

The VideoVets Project

As part of their latest anti-war campaign, The VideoVets Project, MoveOn.org has collected 20+ interviews with actual Iraq war veterans and their families willing to speak out. Now they're asking for visitors to the site to help decide which are the most powerful and eventually they will be turned into a TV commercial by Oliver Stone. You can watch them all now and vote here or sample one below...

Visualizing Mass Consumption

I love the striking works of Chris Jordan which document the mass quantities of goods that make up our consumer culture. His most recent series, Running The Numbers, consists of giant stylized depictions of various quantities (pictured: "Cell Phones", which shows the number of cell phones retired every day in the US [426,000] and a detail view of the same image). His earlier series Intolerable Beauty is made up of actual landscapes of consumer items. All of his work can be seen on his site here.

Thanks Mim!

Steven Colbert on rBGH

Steven Colbert's take on the recent flap over labeling of products using Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) is, as usual, right on target...



via Treehugger, thanks Melinda!

Open Source Resistance...sort of.

With a rallying cry of "Wake up and give a shit" Open Source Resistance, whose striking graphics have been appearing in newspapers across the country, seems like a potentially cool new grassroots activist organization, but in actuality it's just one component in a complex marketing campaign developed as part of Nine Inch Nails new album Year Zero. Unlike other ad campaigns that co-opt activist imagery however, I don't find myself upset with this, not just because I enjoy the music of Nine Inch Nails, but because the album, which is set in a dystopian future, is actually political in nature, like most good science fiction.

OSR even staged a secret meeting where a small number of folks were taken to an undisclosed location and treated to a talking to by a revolutionary followed by a mini-NIN show, which was subsequently shut down by the "police". You can watch it all happen here.

You're also invited to join in at ArtIsResistance.com.

The problem with advertsing...

This disturbing bit of poorly planned advertising showed up in the Richmond Times-Dispatch this past Sunday. It's the front page of a "4-page pull-away tribute" to the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre subtitled "Remembering the victims". But thanks to the additional sticker ad, they're apparently remembering to get Toasted Cheesesteaks at Wawa afterwards. Yeah, that'll make a nice keepsake for the friends and families of the victims.

Pledge to Live a One Planet Life

This Earth Day Care2 asks you to pledge to live a One Planet Life...

Fast Food Reality

We all know that ads lie, still it's fun to have such a dramatic illustration as the Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality page.

My favorite image has to be the Filet-O-Fish that defies styling and looks just as bad in ads as it does in real life!

Thanks Mica!

ALR Studio Tour & Tea Party

Folks in the Richmond area are invited to come check out the Another Limited Rebellion workspace and have a spot of tea as part of the AIGA Richmond Studio Tour series.

Friday, April 27, 2007
6 to 8:30 pm
2701 Edgewood Ave
Richmond, VA

Thanks to Marc for the lovely poster!

Repressed Images

In case you missed Repressed II last month here are some images thanks to Bizhan, who curated the show for Gallery 5. Just a reminder my piece "Happy" is available as a Creative Commons licensed download for you to do with as you please.

São Paulo goes Ad Free.

As of January 1st a law banning all outdoor advertising went into effect in São Paulo, Brazil.
The results have been documented in this eerily beautiful Flickr set.

For more on the details of the law, which was passed the city council by a vote of 45 to 1 in September of last year, check out this International Heral Tribune article.

via Boing Boing

Guns

As a Virginia resident I can't begin to explain how upset I am about incident at Virginia Tech. I am also embarrassed and upset by the fact that Virginia just happens to be one of the easiest states in which to obtain a gun. Please consider joining me in making a statement to the president and other elected officials that we need to enforce and strengthen gun laws by signing the petition and sending an email from StopTheNRA.com a project of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Hearst Gets Greener

Hearst made quite a statement last year with the opening of it's entirely green NYC headquarters.
This week they have announced a new consumer website which will be entirely focused on earth-friendly living called The Daily Green (link).

The Daily Green will be a one-stop Web destination where the fast-growing community of green consumers can find each other and everything they need to know to embrace a more energy-conscious, natural foods-oriented and environment-friendly lifestyle.

The Daily Green will feature daily eco-tips; the day’s key national and international environmental news; advice on how to enjoy a more sustainable life with smart energy and product choices; delicious recipes for meals and school lunches that are more hormone- and pesticide-free, compassionately raised and “as local-as-available”; and ideas for creating a more toxin-free home. While content will be an important element of The Daily Green, it is the community of followers of the green movement that will inform the sensibility of the site. For example, Weird Weather Watch, a user-generated photoblog of climate change snapped by backyard environmentalists and camera phone climatologists will be an important feature, as will user-submitted recipes and tips. In addition, the site will give a voice to the leaders of the country’s most important environmental organizations through blog postings and site links.

The beta version will launch on Earth Day, April 22 2007. Check back here for further investigation at that time!

Until then you can go read
more about the Hearst Tower (Link)

Seed Bombs in ReadyMade

The current (May/June) issue of ReadyMade magazine includes a nice mention of Seed Bombs!, one of the flower growing, guerrilla gardening products that are part of the Swords Into Plowshares art project, which I created with Christopher Humes. Learn more about the art and get your own Seed Bombs! at PlantThePiece.org.

The Holey Bible

The Dutch Western Bible Foundation has produced a new bible for modern society: The Western Bible, in which they have physically cut out portions of the text that they don't feel apply any more. According to the group (via BabelFish translation):

We have cut everything what is not appropriate at the 21st century. No word concerning money or poverty. This can let you read with a rested heart to your children!

The group is actually a fictional creation of an activist Christian group called Time To Turn that is focused on encouraging sustainable living. They created the campaign to point out the hypocrisy of most modern Christians. The Bible (or at least a prototype version) is actually for sale in the Netherlands.

Thanks to Marc for his help on this!

Environmentalism for Girls

The new website The Big Green Purse, created by writer and socially conscious marketer Diane MacEachern, is attempting to make the world a better place by focusing on women's shopping habits noting that "women spend $.85 of every dollar in the marketplace."

Irradiated = Pasteurized says FDA.

According to a recent AP article the FDA is once again considering relaxing the labeling of foods which have been irradiated. Under their new proposal some irradiated foods could just be labeled as pasteurized or even alternate terms, which could be petitioned for by manufacturers. Jeff Barach, vice president of the Grocery Manufacturers/Food Products Association, was quoted as saying “We have long argued that the use of the term irradiation or radiation has such a negative impact on the consumer that it basically acts as a warning label.” However:

The FDA acknowledges in the proposed rule that allowing alternative ways of describing irradiation could confuse consumers: “Research indicates that many consumers regard substitute terms for irradiation to be misleading,” the proposal reads in part.

Read the entire article here.

Copyrighted Homework

Virginia students have sued an anti-plagiarism software company for copyright infringement. From a recent Christian Science Monitor article:

The saga began last year when McLean High School in Virginia adopted a widely used antiplagiarism service called Turnitin. Under the system, students electronically submit essays to be stored and compared against millions of others in a massive database. Teachers can see if students are lifting work – a valuable tool given that research has found that 40 percent of undergraduate students admit to copying and pasting passages from websites.

But the setup rankled some students, who argued they shouldn't have to surrender their personal writing and persuasive essays – along with their names and e-mail addresses – to a computer bank in California.

"The suit is not about plagiarism; it's about the school forcing the students to turn their work over to a for-profit company," says Kevin Wade Sr., the father of a plaintiff.

Read the entire story here.

Man Is Born Free, But Everywhere He’s Working for a Jerk

The psychopathology of the modern American corporate leader.

According to one report, 60 to 70 percent of employees say the worst aspect of their job is their boss. According to this article from New York Magazine, bosses are known to suffer from a long list of social pathologies such as naked aggression, credit hogging, micromanaging and bullying.

“Narcissists have unrealistically exaggerated views of their abilities and achievements,” reports University of Florida professor Timothy Judge, whose 2006 study of narcissists was titled “Loving Yourself Abundantly.”

Ring any bells? And exhale.

National Day of Climate Action: April 14, 2007

Just a few more days to prepare for the Step It Up 2007 National Day of Climate Action, which is this Saturday, April 14th.

To find out how to get involved in actions happening near you go here.

David Lynch on Product Placement [NSFW]

A lovely succinct response by master filmmaker David Lynch on the practice of Product Placement (definitely not work or kid safe)...




via Stay Free! > via WOW

The Counterfeit Crochet Project

As a commentary on mass produced consumer goods the Counterfeit Crochet Project encourages crafty folks to make handmade versions of high fashion handbags. The results are being displayed on CCP creator Stephanie Syjuco's blog Anti-Factory.

via Veer

41 dollars = 41 Pounds

The group 41 Pounds wants to help the environment by helping you eliminate junk mail from your life. For $41 dollars the group, which donates 1/3 of the amount to environmental charities, estimates the average American gets 41 pounds of junk mail a year and that their service can eliminate about 90% of it for at least 5 years. Find out more here.

via idUnited, thanks Nev!

War is a Game

These striking ads from the International Rescue Committee show how your donations can allow them to continue to help, but the other message (whether intended or unintended I don't know) that war is a stupid game, that you rarely come out of as a winner, seems even more appropriate to me.

via Houtlust

How Much Land to Power The Whole World with Solar?

Taking into account average cloud coverage and angry farmers poached off their land, this page illustrates the amount of the earth's surface, once converted (read: coated) in solar panels could theoretically provide enough power to compensate for the globe's electrical needs - that is, all electrical needs currently consumed including heat, powr, fossil fuels, etc..

Solar Powered Bible

I'm at a bit of a loss on this solar powered item:

If you have ever wanted to read the Bible from cover to cover but found yourself without the time necessary to sit and read, your prayers have been answered. Our Talking Bible allows you to simply push a button and listen to a pleasant human voice read the complete Bible both Old and New Testaments, or to go to a specific book and chapter to hear a specific verse.

Imagine listening to the Bible as you meditate, sew, garden, relax...and it's a God send for the vision impaired. Powering this Bible is easy as well as all you need to do is place it near a light source and it recharges.

I guess I'm glad that they've recognizing the need to shift away from the old global warming inducing fossil fuel powered bibles.

Logo Left Behind

The reprehensible educational program No Child Left Behind has a new equally reprehensible logo (did you even know they had an old logo?).

Via Brand New, whose post on it also features some rather entertaining responses by the design community.

Homeless Signs

Official looking pro-homeless signs have been turning up in Toronto. From the Toronto Star:

The signs sprang up suddenly under the cover of night.

Official-looking and made of hard plastic and aluminum, they were bolted to posts at major intersections along Lake Shore Blvd.

Other turned up at busy downtown hubs.

"Quiet," read one, in front of a downtown hospital. "Homeless people sleeping."

Another advised, "Homeless warming grate. Please keep clear."

For Mark Daye, who created the series of seven signs, it seemed a master stroke of subversion. How do you draw attention to an age-old urban issue, especially when passersby have long been conditioned to ignore the usual signage – those tattered posters glued to poles and construction sites?

Read the entire article here.

Thanks Roy!

Uncle Ben's Makeover

The New York Times has an article on the rebranding of Uncle Ben, the black stereotype mascot of the eponymous rice:

Uncle Ben, who first appeared in ads in 1946, is being reborn as Ben, an accomplished businessman with an opulent office, a busy schedule, an extensive travel itinerary and a penchant for sharing what the company calls his “grains of wisdom” about rice and life. A crucial aspect of his biography remains the same, though: He has no last name.
...

Despite the character’s impressive new credentials, some advertising executives expressed skepticism that the campaign could avoid negative overtones.

The ads are “asking us to make the leap from Uncle Ben being someone who looks like a butler to overnight being a chairman of the board,” Ms. Kern Foxworth said. “It does not work for me.”

“I applaud them for the effort and trying to move forward,” she added, but the decision to keep the same portrait of Uncle Ben, bow tie and all, also dismayed her because “they’re trying so hard to hold onto something I’m trying so hard to get rid of.”

The updated product website even allows visitors to tour his office. Read the entire article here.

Thanks Zeev!

Spotted in Richmond, VA: Sign of Our Times

This Orwellian sign is on the entrance to the Richmond International Airport in my home town of Richmond, VA.

So what I want to know is where's the icon for "Jokes" and what would it be?

Spotted in NYC Part II: R-Rated Smoking

Saw these ads all over Times Square last week promoting Reality Check a group that is pushing to have smoking relegated to R-Rated movies only.

The copy says "Now Playing in 75% of PG-13 movies" "Hollywood Presents SMOKING influencing 390,000 new teen smokers each year".

Get more details here.

Spotted in NYC Part I: Creepy Ad Synergy

Saw this disturbing bit of advertising synergy in Times Square last week. Am I only only one that think this looks wrong on many levels? And yes the straw from the water ad is intentionally going into the Swimsuit Issue ad.

ALR on Tour: NYC

I just returned from a business trip in NYC (thus the lack of posts recently) where I also gave a talk at NYU's Tisch School of The Arts to students [shown left] in the Tech Track program (which was the program I was in, 15 odd years ago!).

Thanks so much to Wendy Luedtke for bringing me in to talk about my company and socially conscious design.

Imaging Today’s Labor Movement

Folks in NYC are encouraged to check out this show of modern labor movement graphics curated by folks from Just Seeds and the Bread & Roses Cultural Project:

Graphic Work
Imaging Today’s Labor Movement

April 5 to April 30
Opening Reception
Thursday, April 12
6pm to 9pm

Gallery 1199
Open M-F: 9-5
310 W 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036
For more information contact Zoeann Murphy: 518.269.2233

The US labor movement has created some of the most effective political
graphics and images in history. However, work and workers, along with the
labor movement are often depicted as experiences of the American past:
photographs of children in factories in the early 1900s, paintings of
historic strikes and Rosie the Riveter. Now the labor movement needs new
images of the issues confronting workers today. Graphic Work, curated by
Josh MacPhee and Zoeann Murphy is a collection of 40 posters aimed at
representing the new fact of labor.

Graphic Work is a project of the Workforce Development Institute, the Bread
& Roses Cultural Project of 1199SEIU, and JustSeeds.org

More info at www.bread-and-roses.com

Kleenex Cleanup

In this video, Greenpeace activists annoy a Kleenex commercial film crew.

The Kleenex campaign Greenpeace is manipulating here, is distasteful on many levels. Asking people to tell personal stories which drive them to tears on camera in exchange for 200 Dollars if ad execs find it worthy enough to use in their million dollar tissue marketing campaign is, well, as gross as a snotty, slimey, used Kleenex brand tissue.

I am not sure how effective this action was in the tradition of Greenpeace 'direct action' but I like that they can piggy-back off of an expensive ad campaign to make a little YouTube video and promote their cause for free.

RMall Places Fake Explosives In Shopping Mall

RMall, in what they are calling a public service, has started a security campaign aiming a drawing public attention to terror threats. This photo collection, released by RMall shows fake explosive devices placed at random spots in the shopping outlet. The plastic bags, containing fake dynamite complete with a makeshift timer, bring to mind the recent controversy over the guerrilla marketing campaign for the movie Aqua Teen Hunger Force that sent Boston into a frenzy.

RMall is located in Mulund a suburb of Mumbai, India.