Initial Responses

1. Task 2 – Initial Responses
Alice Rose

2. ∗ Smoking
∗ Drink/drug driving
∗ Cancer
∗ Fracking
∗ Politics
∗ Pollution/environment
∗ Bullying
∗ Mental health
∗ Death penalty
∗ Gambling
∗ Racism
Possible Subjects
∗ Women’s rights
∗ Alcohol
∗ Litter
∗ Homelessness
∗ Drugs/legal highs
∗ Sexuality
∗ Addiction
∗ Gender identity
∗ Domestic abuse
∗ Speeding/driving
∗ Animals/endangered

3. Mental Health

4. These posters that I have chosen all take different aspects of mental health to raise
awareness about as it is already a broad subject. If I was to pick this social issue I would have
to be specific in what problem I would be raising awareness about. The first is focusing on
stress and the importance of mindfulness. This is a successful campaign as it appeals to
everyone as everyone’s lives at some point will be stressful. The second campaign is a very
clever as it takes common mental health disorders and illustrates them as monsters and uses
the play on words “how to train your monsters” instead of “dragons” from the Pixar film.
This is clearly aimed at the younger generation, possibly people that are into graphic novels
and comics. The third is aimed at soldiers and PTSD as it is very common for men who have
been on the frontline to develop this disorder as they are less likely to come forward as some
see it as a sign of weakness. The fourth is aimed at informing about the link between
depression and drug use, again aimed at younger people in order to help prevent this. The
fifth is aimed specifically at men as the suicide rate for men is much higher than women in the
UK. It is a campaign done by Men’s Health, which is a fitness magazine aimed specifically at
men – therefore taking the healthy body/mind as some men take pride in their physique.
Mental Health

5. Homelessness

6. These posters all tackle a different issue surrounding homelessness. The first aims to highlight that
homeless people often get ignored but if you put a poster in the place of a homeless person it gets a lot
more attention. This is a strong campaign because it aims to shock the audience into taking more notice
and being more sympathetic to homeless people. The second campaign focuses on the diets of
homeless people and normal people that are just wanting to get rid of waste will be shocked and
maybe made to think a little bit more about how good their life is in comparison which is why this is a
good campaign. The third image of a bus stop is the most impacting of all of them in my opinion as it
highlights the issue that without being able to put an address down you will not be employed. This is an
issue that many people overlook when thinking about homeless people and I think that is why it is a
good campaign. The fourth image of a box is a good campaign because it takes an item that homeless
people find themselves using to sleep on (cardboard boxes) and uses the sales to improve their lives so
they don’t need to sleep on a box. The final image depicts a tweet that a real life person put on the
internet. It is shocking because it uses something that someone of the opposition has said and puts it
next to an image of someone that is meant to be homeless as a kind of juxtaposition to prove that
these people are real and they are not horrible people just because they don’t have a house.
Homelessness

7. Gay rights

8. These posters all tackle the issues of gay rights. This is a subject that is personal to me because I have grown up with a
close family member being affected by these issues. The first one is from the UN Free and Equal campaign and
although there is no imagery it is still a very powerful poster. It raises the issue that people think that being gay is a
choice, which it is not. I like this because it has a minimum design with maximum impact. The second poster featuring
the celebrity with the “no h8” sign on her cheek is a good campaign because it gave celebrities an opportunity to
endorse this charity. If their audience see celebrities that believe and are willing to campaign for the cause, these
people of importance might change the minds of the public who look up to them but do not yet agree. The third
campaign is again from UN Free and Equal apart from this time this campaign is focussed on gay marriage. This again
simple design communicates that everyone should be free to marry who they choose, again I like the simple design
but heavy impact. It is focusing on the fact that gay people are allowed in the army, which is new legislation as it is,
but yet not allowed to marry who they want. When you compare the two factors it seems silly that one is allowed and
the other isn’t. The fourth image is again simple in design using only words to communicate their point. This is a
campaign from Stonewall which is challenging the stigma around the language that we use. It is normal to say the
word “gay” and it means something negative almost like a synonym for lame or uncool. Stonewall’s campaign aimed
to make people stop and think about how the language they use could upset people from the LGBT community. The
fifth is my favourite campaign out of all of these five as I think it is such an unusual way of looking at the issue. This is a
campaign from Absolut Vodka and it features one of their bottles without a label on to represent that not everything
needs to have a label. I like this because it is unusual for an alcohol company to get involved in these sorts of issues
and it is a clever way of linking them both together.
Gay rights