Posters and billboards began popping up in major American cities last week proclaiming that “Hipsters Deserve to Die.” Sort of shocking to say the least.
Also named as “deserving to die” are: the tattooed, cat lovers, the genetically privileged, crazy old aunts and various other niche groups. Each poster uses a photo portrait to demonstrate the labeled persona. Click through the tabs above to see the work.
This has been upsetting some people in cities like Chicago where people tore down the posters in anger. ”I think that’s very offensive to people who are animal lovers,” Shelli Williams told the Chicago CBS station when first shown the cat lovers version of the poster. These types of reactions have prompted news coverage already. People seem to be a bit confused as to why anyone would post these types of messages.
That is precisely the point though. One quick click at the campaign’s website URL reveals that NoOneDeservesToDie’s goal is to raise awareness for a deadly disease that “doesn’t discriminate.” The point seems to be that whatever you might be labeled by society-at-large – that none of us deserve to die. [The site reports that 158,000+ people died of lung cancer in 2008.]
The campaign was designed by Wisconsin agency Laughlin Constable and the Lung Cancer Alliance “We knew that one would be polarizing,” Laughlin Constable strategy VP Denise Kohnke told a Milwaukee TV station.
What do you think? Does it work?
Brilliant! It stands out and makes us notice in a world where we are so jaded that we don’t take notice anymore.
Absolutely the campaign worked, at least for me. They wrapped a small pay phone in my neighborhood with the smug deserve to die on one side and cat lovers on the other. No other info was attach, just the large copy. What I love so much about this is the beautiful portraits that grabbed my attention. Working in the industry and looking at photos everyday, it is rare that I ever stop and notice any advertising. With this campaign, I went out of my way to get a closer look. Beautiful work, dark humor, loved it.
I thought it was going to be an anti-war message.
Is trolling the new height of advertising? Consider the classic troll, who inhabits digital communities as a controversy generator. The key goal is offending and infuriating people and getting them to stop talking about themselves, and start fighting over the calculated controversy generated by the troll – and ultimately focussing on the troll himself, particularly the troll’s moral character. How to explain the troll? Does the troll deserve sympathy? Is the troll not hurting inside too? How do we know the troll is not itself, a cancer sufferer? If successful, the troll can divide the group into those that think the troll deserves to die and those that want to protect it. The group will now be about the troll, rather than cancer support, or photography, or reducing militarism or anything worthwhile.
The troll is a master of getting attention, and it’s an attention economy, so the troll is a genius. However, there is something profoundly anti-social about trolling. It is pure mirror-image manipulation. It has no opinion of it’s own. It is designed to divide and conquer. It is also worth noting that the only way to deal with a troll is to stop engaging with it. Stop talking about it. Getting a large group of people to stop engaging a troll is virtually impossible. Perfect for advertising then.
[Insert racist, homophobic, violent, aggressive, uncaring, unfeeling, xenophobic, misogynistic, tribalistic message specifically targeting the weakest commenter here.]
That’s every ad campaign ever..these people just know how to do it, and it works.
Seems like they took a page out of the Ryan Hollday handbook.