2. ‘Help, so that no one
has to come here for food’
This interesting concept was brought
by Vitae to the streets of Portugal in
an attempt to create shock value
amongst those emptying rubbish
into their bins. It was predominantly
targeted at homelessness
specifically, and has the writing
‘help, so that no one has to come
here for food’ next to a worn out
looking man. This kind of shock value
marketing is often great at instantly
spreading awareness, and would be
a valuable asset to take with me
when creating my campaign.
Novelty and original idea,
unavoidable and in the
public eye at all times.
Large image of
victim adds to
the shock value
Command word
‘help’ stresses
importance of the
issue, further
pushing people to
get involved.
3. ‘Poverty shouldn’t be a life sentence’
This poster was created by the Salvation
Army, and gives it’s audience a clear
message that poverty shouldn’t be
something that someone is sentenced
to for life, and uses the word sentence
as a form of metaphor for the
imprisonment that poverty often casts
upon it’s victims. It also gives it’s viewer
the idea that poverty is something that I
in many ways unnecessarily
criminalised. It is particularly relevant
for my research due to being a poster
distributed throughout the UK, so it is
likely to be targeted at a similar
audience to my campaign. This use of
play on words is something I can
potentially look at using for inspiration
when starting my production. This
range of posters (include several other
similar ones) were distributed
nationwide in various public areas such
as hospitals etc.
The clear logo allows
the poster’s audience to
instantly associate the
poster with Salvation
Army.
The use of a prison
based image helps to
highlight the play on
words for those who
might have
otherwise not
caught onto it.
A quick and snappy
play-on-words is
effective in order to
reveal the harsh reality
of the entrapment of
reality to the poster's
audience.
4. ‘Stop hunger’ – unknown source
With this particular example of an existing
product I’ve found on the internet, I haven’t
a actually been able to find the source of
the poster or the organisation who
produced it. Despite this, I really enjoy the
bold simplicity of the poster, which chooses
a very clean look, rather than crowded
images like most of the others I found. The
fork represents the hunger, but also
doubles up as a hand being put out as if to
indicate ‘stop’ the hunger. This technique
instantly adds novelty value to the poster,
this grabbing people’s attention. To add to
this, the high contrast between the fork,
writing and background adds to this
attention grabbing value. Furthermore, red
is a colour that often connotes stopping so
in this way the poster reinforces the fact
that it wants it’s audience to stop poverty.
5. ‘How did the war on poverty become
the war on the poor?’
This poster was part of a chain of posters created
by Occupy (A small British organisation who’s
work has gone viral over the internet, and has
been recognised by the BBC and ITV) in a
campaign to change attitudes towards poverty.
The set of posters all entail this similar visual style,
much like something that has been rotoscoped.
The rhetorical question that has been asked
encourages the poster’s audience to think, and is
thought provoking. The bold capital letters make
the words jump out of the poster, further
reinforcing this. On Occupy’s website, they use a
basic yet easy to navigate tubmlr layout for their
website with a donate button at the top of the
screen which utilises the PayPal donation system.
Despite the simplicity of this organisation and
what it stands for, I really think there’s a lot I can
take from it, especially due to the fact that it is
also based in England, and started off with very
little funding.
6. Save the Cilhdren – Child poverty video
This is an example of how an organization (Save the Children) has approached the issue of poverty with a
different technique, by using a video rather than a poster. The use of a video allows a more in depth display
of some of the effects poverty can have. By using moving images to portray children effected by it, it helps
to bring the issue to life more than a poster typically would. The use of a video allows for more
info/facts/figures to be presented through audio, rather than just having to rely on a couple of sentences to
get the point across. Celebrity endorsement (Paul O’grady presenting the video) has been used in this video
in order to create a sense of association between the audience and the issue addressed, and creates a sort
of bridging gap that is likely to engage members of the audience. Another interesting technique I picked up
on from watching this is the use of very dull and morbid colors throughout. This was likely used to represent
the dull reality of living with the effects of poverty, and the grey urban landscape (seen behind O’grady)
really emphasizes these solemn emotions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04A_5q2
h8Eg
Link to the
video…
7. Conclusion…
• What I’ve learned from evaluation these various organisations and the campaign’s
they’ve been involved in, is that there really is not set way to go about campaigning
against poverty. The fact that all these organisations run on completely different scales
and levels speaks for itself, some with very little funding and others with much more.
Not only this, but the posters they have produced are all vastly different both in terms
of visual style and meaning, all utilizing different techniques to pull in their audience.
Some of these techniques will really come in hand when starting my own production,
such as shock value, rhetorical questions etc. and by taking some of what I think is best
from these and working with these features, I’ll be able to really get the best out of my
own campaign. With this in mind, I think that I’ve learned that a lot of what makes
these poverty campaigns so successful is their originality and novelty value, so I’ll keep
this in mind at all times, and aim to create a campaign which really stands out in the
crowd. I’ve also learned that video based campaigning can be an effective way of
presenting information to an audience, due to the more immersive elements including
moving images and audio, so including some form of video within my campaign could
also prove useful.
