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?
BLOGS DESERVE TO DIE! (Um, jus’ kiddin’.)
people in advertising sold their souls a long time ago. sure we can talk about it but these people are pathetic.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9167657690296627941
sure. it advertising can be cool, creative, etc. but in the end if people don’t but USELESS 5HIT then these people are going to be out of job. they’re up there with wall st folks. its all about the $.
I do like these sort of reverse psychology ways of making people aware of stuff. I really think it helps and has a lot bigger impact than just stating your point flat out. Doing it this way of course is going to cause a lot of fuss, but it will make people think about it and let their brains do some work.
My wife was diagnosed with lung cancer (LC) 14 months ago and I feel this campaign is doing what it should –
1. Raise awareness that LC is not just a smoker’s cancer and even if your smoking contributed to your LC, you still don’t deserve to die from it (most of the LC support groups operate under the motto of “Cause Agnostic”).
2. It is the leading cause of all cancer deaths (the 2nd leading cause of all deaths after heart disease) and it is the least funded in research dollars.
Since my wife’s diagnosis, she has met 8 others with LC and just 3 of them were smokers. Exposure to radon is the 2nd leading cause of LC and is the leading cause of lung cancer in never smokers and it is worth having your home’s radon level tested. Radon exposure is the best guess at the cause of my wife’s cancer (really there is no way to know for certain).
EPA’s radon information website: http://www.epa.gov/radon
I would prefer not to have to live in a space where such twisted negativity (even feigned) is plastered everywhere. You may win the battle (short term buzz), but lose the war. It’s not worth it.