Do Billboards Kill?

Evidence of a negative effect

"We have found evidence of negative links between national advertising and national wellbeing (Michel et al. 2019). Using longitudinal information on countries, from pooled cross-sectional surveys, we find that rises and falls in advertising are followed, a few years later, by falls and rises in national life-satisfaction, giving an inverse connection between advertising levels and the later wellbeing levels of nations."

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/06/advertising-as-a-major-source-of-human-dissatisfaction-cross-national-evidence-on-one-million-europeans/

Part of DesignMcr19

We’ll ask the greatest minds; who truly understand the deeper needs of human beings what we need to live well, in contrast to what advertising often tells us. Then, we’ll team them up with the powerful and talented advertising agencies to execute not one but three creative, fun and energetic print campaigns for some of the good stuff that we do need, on 36+ bus shelters and billboards across Greater Manchester.

The Thinkers

Psychologist - Oliver James (Author, broadcaster, columnist)

Sociologist - Anne Cronin (Author specialising in the impact of advertising)

Philosopher - Simon Critchley (New School for Social Research NY, author)

Creative Agencies

Tiger Savage - World Leading female Creative Director (Lynx, Adidas, Vogue)

Micah Purnell - multidisciplinary creative studio with Design Thinking and Ethical Persuasion™ at heart. This means an alternative approach to problem solving and a passion to pursue meaningful projects that offer a tangible benefit to people’s wellbeing.

Havas Lynx - Global Healthcare Ad agency (Johnson & Johnson, General Electric)

PANEL CONVERSATION

To top it off we’ll host a panel conversation with all involved to explore the campaign and discuss the ethical line in advertising from design, psychological, sociological and philosophical perspectives.

Costs

The total needed for such an ambitious project is upwards of £20K+. Applications are going out elsewhere, but, we need match funding to kick us off. If things go well we may increase the goal to include a publication celebrating the project with articles around the theme of commercial messaging.