Creative Protests

Convincing people to care about things that don't directly affect them is not an easy thing to do. Protest is thus an excellent ground for innovation and the carrying out of creative ideas driven by people with real passion. I thought I'd take a look at how people have gotten it right.

Performance - Human Trafficking

This lady staged a demonstration for Amnesty International on an airport conveyor belt in Munich to raise awareness about human trafficking. I think the image speaks for itself.

The Yes Men - Cutting The Corporate Crap

Quoted directly from Wikipedia:

"The Yes Men are a group of culture jamming activists who practice what they call "identity correction" by pretending to be powerful people and spokespersons for prominent organizations. They create and maintain fake websites similar to ones they want to spoof, and then they accept invitations received on their websites to appear at conferences, symposia, and TV shows."

This is both cool and incredibly dodgy. They've been involved in a number of "hijackings" like this (one that got them onto the BBC), but a recent one listed on their site describes how the "World Trade Organisation" suggested "full private stewardry of labor"  for Africa at a Wharton business school conference. In case you didn't catch that they were talking about slavery. 

To find out more I suggest you check out their FAQ section, or their award winning film - both available on their site.

Using the Ridiculous - ProtestIt.co.za

This site is built on the premise that Cape Town authorities are planning to rebuild Table Mountain in order to give it a "more European" feel. The site is set up with a blog and a video, and no doubt intends to draw attention to Earth Day - but has managed to use the ridiculous to get our attention.

Exposing the Ridiculous - The Mass Lone Protest

In 2007 150 people applied to protest individual causes after the instituting of the “Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA)” under which “protestors require police permission before a demonstration is mounted within a mile of parliament.”

Comedian Mark Thomas encouraged people to each champion their own cause - resulting in some media coverage and a lot of admin for the authorities. Protests ranged from fighting global warming to demanding more pubs to protesting protest itself.

Beautiful Imagery - Banksy

While you've probably encountered his work before, I just had to include Banksy's protest on the Palestinian side of Israel's seperation wall.

Black Out New Zealand - Using Social Media

As part of a protest against the "Guilt Upon Accusation" law in New Zealand earlier this year Creative Freedom New Zealand encouraged people to blackout their online profile pics (on all and any Social Media sites). The implications of the law were that upon being "accused of infringing on copyright, your Internet access [could] be shut down "without any evidence held up to court scrutiny"". The profile black-outs were a sign that people support the protest and helped to spread the word virally. The law was later repealed.

I haven't gotten into the effect of most of these - whether or not they made a difference - that is (to be honest) a question which I think is beyond the scope of this post. These were all activities that managed to grab hold of people's attention with fresh ideas, which is why they made it onto this blog. There must be more out there though, please share any you've found.

And as a final note - go sign up for Earth Hour happening this Saturday (the 28th) - it is an incredible movement that could really make a difference. DO IT. Right Now.