Sometimes advertising isn't about selling a product, but promoting an idea. Here are seven remarkable ads promoting social and environmental awareness.
BBC World: Missing Countries
If you can't read it, the photo text reads, "Hundreds of giant map pieces were placed strategically throughout target cities. At bus benches, on the beach, in parking garages, even in trees, everywhere you look you'd see the parts of the world that your current news isn't covering."
Amnesty International – China and Human Rights
These striking ads are from Amnesty International. They use the 2008 Olympic Games, held in Beijing, and subvert images of Olympic events such as sprinting and weightlifting to speak out against China's controversial human rights record.
Earth Love Foundation – Act Now Against Global Warming
This ad for the Earth Love Foundation uses an image of a flood in an attempt to raise awareness of rising water levels caused by climate change.
Multiple Sclerosis Australia – Funding is Necessary
This ad installation attempts to encourage funding for Multiple Sclerosis funding. It demonstrates the tagline, "Without your donation, research will stop," by using a real scientist who would sit in a booth unmoving until someone put a coin in a slot provided. Once that happened, the scientist would become active and mimic research.
Conservation International Colombia – Melting Animals
Another ad installation, this one in Colombia, uses animals made of ice to bring the issue of polar melting, caused by climate change, to the public's attention. The ice animals melt throughout the day, which over 8,000 passersby watched happen. This campaign garnered over a thousand emails from people interested in helping to prevent climate change.
World Vision – You Can't Ignore Child Labour
These ads were placed in revolving doors around Amsterdam. Life-sized depictions of children with chains around their wrists and legs, they were placed in an attempt to encourage passersby to stop child labour.
What do you think of these ads? Would they inspire you to find out more?
Sources:
Ads of the World
I Believe in Advertising
