Social Action Campaigns

1. Social Action Campaigns
Jess Stanton

2. This poster has been made to raise awareness of the truth about animals’ lives in circuses
as the majority of people will not know what goes on ‘behind the scenes’ of these shows.
The second purpose of this poster is to change people’s attitudes towards circuses and to
put them off going to a show where the animals are kept in cages, as shown on the poster.
As a result of this the audience would realise what the circuses are doing isn’t right or fair
towards the animals.
There are several different organisations on the poster meaning this is only one campaign to
stop animal cruelty as a whole although specifically in circuses; so another purpose of the
campaign is to bring about local, national and global change as this problem is current in
many places and happening in circuses worldwide. The writing in the poster goes on to say
all of the features of the circus that normally isn’t seen, mostly because of the conditions the
animals are in, giving the campaign the purpose of providing information as a way of
aiding other purposes such as making people aware.
Impact:
In 2014, the majority of the Social Democratic Party (PSD-CDS) in the Portuguese
Parliament pushed to get a law informing rules on animal welfare. The new legislations
presents ‘heavy penalties, including prison and daily fines (as yet undisclosed) for those to
have mistreated or abandoned a pet animal, while also granting more right to animal
protection associations.’

3. The poster uses techniques
such as featuring popular
language such as catch
phrases and fonts associated
with circuses all the way
through the text however as
a negative to entice the
audience into reading it and
to make them that what
they’re seeing isn’t humane.
By using techniques of
powerful imagery of a
monkey, a popular animal
found in the circus behind
bars, it conveys to the
audience that the monkey is
trapped and is not in a place
where it belongs and put in a
situation that it shouldn’t be
in.
The monkey in the frame is
very sharp and has hard tones
making the image more hard
hitting. The bars on the cage,
the monkey taking up a large
part of the frame and the
picture cropped so tightly all
contribute to the idea that the
cage is small. The black
background gives the
impression that the cage is
empty other than the monkey.
Website links and organisation logos are
presented at the bottom of the poster as a
way for the audience to find out more about
the campaign helping the purpose of giving
out information as a way of aiding other
purposes too such as making people aware.
The text is very truthful and direct to the audience making it harder
hitting as it lists everything wrong happening in a circus in a way which
people would advertise the shows and so the audience realise what
they are reading is what they are seeing. This helps support the
purpose of raising people’s awareness and the harsh language used
also aids the purpose of changing attitudes and that it’s not a form of
entertainment.
The face painting on the monkey,
in the similar style of a sad faced
clown’s appearance, shows the
reader that monkeys, and various
other animals are being used as
performing acts however are not
in a place where they belong, this
message
is helped with the bold heading
on the poster ‘Animas are not
clowns’ which also helps portray
the monkey as human.

4.  The Black Fish is an international charity that works to stop illegal overfishing. With the
aid of modern technology and over 30 international staff, the organisation brings
together people in the hopes of protecting the oceans through enforcement of
environmental regulations. One of the purposes of the charity is to bring about local,
national and global change with the help of ‘28 projects in 12 countries around
Europe…and countless volunteers and supporters around the world.’
(http://theblackfish.org) As well as the purpose for the campaign to change people’s
attitudes towards illegal fishing, The Black Fish have a purpose of raising awareness
of illegal fishing and using animals for entertainment by investigating, educating and
taking non-violent direct action in order to maintain a future for the world’s marine life,
this is how they are also fulfilling the purpose of providing information to that
campaign and a way they are achieving both these purposes is with their shop. By
selling badges, bags and t-shirts, not only is the charity being promoted everyday, 100%
of the proceeds go towards the charity.
 Another purpose the campaign achieves is to infiltrate mainstream media due to a
documentary named ‘Blackfish’ being created in July of 2013 which follows the actions
of a male Orca ‘Tilikum’ who is responsible for the deaths of three individuals since
being first held captive there in 1883. Another purpose of the campaign is to challenge
dominant representations, as not many people are aware of what illegal actions are
being committed in the earth’s oceans out of the public eye. The Black Fish charity
achieves this by setting up global tours and rally up support for its campaigns to aim to
also change people’s opinions on illegal fishing once they are made aware that it is
happening all around the world.
 Although The Black fish do not have any of their own campaign adverts, they,
along with the Orca Coalition have founded seven other organisations with the aim
to save marine life therefore several campaigns advertise and make the public
aware of the harsh conditions Killer Whales are being kept in purely for
entertainment, this aids the purpose of bringing about local, national and
global change.

5. Although there is no written
information, the rope around the
killer whale acts as information to
the reader as when they see the
image they will see how whales
are caught in the wild.
The rhetorical questions
leaves the reader inquisitive
and makes them think to
themselves what the question
is asking and partly makes
them aware of what they are
really seeing.
The whole poster is in dark
colours however the red text
not only makes the writing
stand out against the plain
background but is also used to
signify blood and pain,
something that shouldn’t be
associated with animals and
entertainment.
The language used, for instance
‘Killer’ is using the name of the
animal with what people are
getting from it, however it
juxtaposes the idea of gaining
profit which is good to the act of
killing animals which is bad. As
the fonts is all capitals, it makes
all the text stand out.
Impact:
The campaign is still very recent and is still trying to make everyone aware of the cruelty behind animal
entertainment and illegal fishing. However it has had great impact on the media as $2.3 million was raised from
the release of the film and has played a major role in effecting other releases over the past couple of years with
scene from films involving sea world being cut from the movies. In November of 2014, SeaWorld revealed they
had suffered a $15.9 million loss and from 2014-15, profits had fallen ‘84% from $37.4 million to $5.8 million.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaWorld#Blackfish_film)
The charity is still expanding and is gaining more media coverage therefore is starting to become recognized
more in the mainstream media. Radio interviews and articles have been created explaining the charities morals
and aims for the marine life future which in turn is increasing the whereabouts of the campaign and its gaining
more recognition.

6. Barak Obama’s 2008 striking campaign has become one of the most memorable presidential
campaigns. The campaign has the purposes to change voting behaviour in order for people
to vote for him to become the next president as well as bring about local, global and
national change. As well as getting people to vote for him, first he must campaign to people
who aren’t used of voting and to make them understand and make them aware of what his
policies are and if they benefit them, thus has to appeal to all ages meaning another purpose
may be that he has to change people’s attitudes of him.
Impact:
From when the campaign for Barack Obama to become president started in 2007, he has a
supportive network of people donating for his fundraisers in order for him to gain more votes
to win and as of ‘May 2012 Obama and his team have held over 130 fundraisers.’ When he
announced his candidacy on 4th April 2011 over 23,000 donations of $200 or under had been
made online in the first 24 hours. By the second quarter of 2011 more than 550,000
individuals donated towards the campaign, considerably higher than his 2008 campaign
where there was 180,000 donations in the first half of 2007. As of 31st March 2012 the
campaign had raised $191.7 million. When a fundraiser was held in May of 2012 it was
estimated to raise $10 million however this was quickly broken and reached over $15 million,
a lot of which people consider from the LGBT community as this was shortly after Barack
Obama made his announcement that he supports same sex marriage. Even though a purpose
of the campaign will have been to infiltrate the media to promote the campaign for Barack
Obama to become president, an impact, which was not expected at first but was a major
factor to the success of the poster was that many seemed to make parodies of the poster. The
public would take the poster and Photoshop different people’s faces on with different slogans,
which naturally drew attention to the original campaign and is still a popular meme on the
internet today.
The figures on the following slide show the early impact of the Obama Administration.

7. http://www.factcheck.org/2015/04/obamas-numbers-april-2015-update/

8. The campaign isn’t too
complicated and is not
overfilled with text
meaning it will appeal to
everyone eligible to vote.
The campaign also features
his logo of the O taken from
his name with the stripes
from the American flag and
the idea of a rising sun
representing a new day,
which evokes a new sense
of hope thus making the
main text for his campaign
poster.
The only colours on the
poster are red white and
blue which reminds the
reader that they are the
colours of the United States
of America showing the
patriotism and that all he
does will be for the country.
The poster is not just in
one colour, symbolizing
the diversity of the
colour scheme similarly
to the diversity of the
USA.
Even though there
isn’t much writing the
text on the poster is
positive and the font is
all in capitals making it
stand out.
The image on the
campaign is very bold and
hard-hitting and shows
him looking confident and
he knows what he is doing
and that he is full of
‘hope.’

9. Over the years men’s health is becoming more of a topic, which cannot be ignored. ‘Prostate cancer
is the second most common cancer in men worldwide and the number of cases is expected to almost
double to 1.7 million cases by 2030.’ (https://uk.movember.com/programs/cause) Many think it is in
the male nature to ignore health problems however with prostate cancer being the 4th most common
cause of cancer death in the UK Movember aim to reduce the number of deaths from 35 for every
100,000 males in the UK. (http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-
statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/prostate-cancer/mortality#heading-Zero) This campaign helps to
make males aware of what can happen if regular checkups are not made. Another purpose of the
campaign is to build relationships with subjects which allows people to have an understanding on
the issue so that they are more widely discussed thus increasing the number of males who have
regular health checkups. One of their main purposes for this campaign is to strengthen community
ties and for males to come together and support the community so that more males are aware of the
dangers if a healthy lifestyle isn’t maintained. Movember is a charity which is not only in the UK but
also active in America with a purpose to bring about global change as well as national and local.
Impact:
Since the charity was established in 2003, the number of ‘Mo Bros’ and ‘Mo Sista’ has risen from just
5 to over 5 million today from all over the world including participating countries such as ‘Australia,
Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Germany, Ireland,
Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and
USA.’ As a result of the campaign, ‘£402 million has been raised since 2003’ which has ‘funded 832
men’s health projects’ over the past 12 years. The charity has also been ‘ranked 72nd out of the top
500 NGOs (Non-governmental organisations) in the world.’
(https://uk.movember.com/about/history#2014)
The organisation has built up a following and now has several celebrity ambassadors including rapper
Snoop Dog, indie band Foster the People, well known documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock and
many of the Australian Rugby union team players.

10. By using popular, more
informal but modern
language makes the poster
appeal to younger members
in the campaigns target
audience, increasing who
the campaign will be aimed
towards.
Because the campaign is tackling a
serious matter, parts of the text are
very hard hitting in order to get the
message across.
The Movember charity logo
has been included as an extra
source of information. If
someone sees the poster they
know what organisation is
behind it and they can visit
the website or look up the
logo to find out more.
The campaign is in monochrome making the
appearance unusual as most are in colour. The reader
is also not detracted from the important message by
any vibrant colour of the campaign.
Your diet and lifestyle
can dramatically
influence your health.
Regardless of age, the
most important thing
you can do is stay
healthy.
The man on the
campaign’s expression
is happy, showing the
audience that there
are positives to take
from the poster and
that ultimately it is
advice for them to
take in order for them
to live a longer and
healthier lifestyle.

11. Deaffest is a Deaf Film and Television festival created in 2005 with a purpose to give deaf
filmmakers an opportunity to showcase their talents. As well as allowing deaf filmmakers the
chance to show their work it also has a purpose to raise awareness of the festival to make it
more in the public eye and to get more people to change their attitudes towards deaf
people and also provide information on the hearing impaired and be shown that deaf
people can achieve their dreams and are just as capable as anyone else. Another purpose
of the campaign is to strengthen community ties and for people to come together to
support the deaf community as well as challenging dominant representations which can
also help to change people’s attitudes towards the deaf. Another purpose of Deaffest is to
infiltrate mainstream media, which was achieved when winners of the festival have had
their films shown at UK and international film festivals. As people may not have an
understanding of hearing impaired people or Deaffest’s aims, a purpose set out by the
campaign is to build a relationship with the subjects to aid people’s understanding of the
issue. The final purpose of Deaffest is to create access to media production for non-
traditional groups which they achieve because it is a film and TV festival and so are setting
up platforms for people with hard of hearing.
 Impact:
 Deaffest not only celebrates local filmmakers but deaf filmmakers from all over the world
have taken part in the deaf led festival making the festival known worldwide. As a result
of this, more people are now aware of Deaffest and past winner including ‘Bim Ajadi,
Stephen Collins and Ted Evans independently produced their own film, which later
showcased at both UK and international film festivals. ‘
(http://deaffest.co.uk/about/about-deaffest/)

12. The colour scheme is
black and white
meaning no bright
colours will draw away
people’s attention;
their full focus will be
on the text. White
writing on a black
background also
stands out well will
make it easy to read
from any distance too.
The organisation logo has been placed
right in the centre of the campaign poster
to make it bold and grab the audience’s
attention. A technique in this is that they
have made the logo very iconic and
something which links straight to being
deaf giving the audience extra information
in less words.
The lack of text on the
poster leaves the
audience wanting to
find out more and so
leads them to visit the
website.
The website featured on
the campaign as a
source of information
for the audience when
they see this poster
which helps to achieve
the purpose of raising
awareness, as the target
audience can visit the
website to find out
more.

13. The statement at the top of the
poster ‘The UKs leading Deaf-led
film & arts festival’ provides
information for the audience by
claiming something so big and also
may help to change attitudes as it
has a positive status.
The fact it is the festival’s 10th Anniversary makes it
all the more special and so is featured on the poster,
gives the reader some context to the festival and
helps achieve the purpose of making people aware
and the target audience will realise it has been
around for a decade.
The colours are bright
and so will draw
attention to the poster.
The dark and light blue in
the background not only
adds to the poster being
visually stimulating to
look at but also makes
the text stand out on the
poster making it easy for
the audience to pick out
key information.
It is designed with a font,
which looks like one that
would be used on a
magic show, which
establishes that the
festival will be good, and
a lot of fun much like a
magic show.
The date of the festival and
the festival website have
been included on the poster
to help give out more
information if the reader
wishes to find out more.
This can also help the reader
become aware of the
organisation.
The bold hands on the
magician have been
made the way to make
the audience aware
that it about the deaf
community which also
helps tie in the idea of
sign language and the
organisations logo
even though it is not
on the poster.