Graphic communication campaigns can grab public attention and raise the profile of different sorts of crime. And when they're successful great graphic design and a coherent design strategy are often at the heart of the work.
Young people aren't always perpetrators
Spencer du Bois has created a campaign for Lambeth Council in south London to challenge the myths surrounding young people’s involvement in crime and highlight the support available to them in the Lambeth area.
The campaign features Lambeth teenagers who are positive role models in their community, and urges people to ‘check the label’ before stereotyping them.
Surveys show that the key issue of concern for people across the borough is 'young people hanging around'. In fact young people are more likely to be the victim rather than the perpetrator when it comes to crime, and fewer than 3% of Lambeth's young people are involved in offending - and whenever they do get involved in offending we take action.
After a survey showed that the key issue of concern for people across the Lambeth borough was 'young people hanging around' local youth workers decided they needed to raise awareness that in fact young people are more likely to be the victim rather than the perpetrator when it comes to crime. With fewer than 3% of Lambeth's young people being involved in offending they wanted a campaign that would draw people's attention to their Youth Lambeth website which gives details of local activities for young people, as well as support available to parents and families.
Raising awareness about identity theft
Remember a few years ago the campaigns from many leading banks urging us all to be aware of identity theft? How about impressionist Alistair McGowan telling us how easy it would for him to impersonate us as promotion for Capital One’s identity theft assurance policies? Well here's a reminder from YouTube.
How many people now regularly shred all bank correspondence and anything containing personal details? Sales of shredders have increased from 1.9million in 2004 by 52% to 2.8million in 2005, so a lot more of us are conscious of the risk of that sort of crime thanks to well designed ad campaigns from agencies like McCann-Erickson.
Graphic designers continue to create effective campaigns to raise awareness of crime issues.
About theft
The IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) awarded a Home Office campaign, designed by RKCR/Y&R across TV, print and online, its effectiveness award in 2008. ‘Cutting the cost of crime’ features black and yellow anti-theft posters with catchy slogans like ‘Bye pod’ and ‘Don’t advertise your home to criminals’ and you can see an example on the IPA website.
Theft costs British society an estimated £9.5 billion per year. But many of these opportunistic crimes can be easily avoided if people take simple preventative measures. The challenge for RKCR/Y&R was to find a single campaign idea that could motivate a core target audience most at risk of crime and demonstrate measures they could take to prevent it.
Using a single, humorous campaign idea, the strategy was to dramatise how thieves saw their victims as stupidly careless. The campaign reduced the cost of crime to the taxpayer by £189 million and generated a payback of £14 per every £1 spent.
Dan Cobley, marketing director, UK, Ireland and Benelux, Google was one of the judges for the IPA awards. He says: ‘Acquisition Crime was a great campaign that used clever research and media and exhibited proof that was overwhelming. It was nice to see a change of approach in the way crime is tackled; the strategy was to use humour instead of fear to prevent opportunistic crime.’
About gun crime
A film about the Trident 'Stop the Guns' campaign from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA)shows how advertising designed by Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy and MediaCom led to an 86% rise in calls providing intelligence on gun crime and a reduction of 15% on actual gun crime.
In 2007 22-year-old Arian Arthur was shot dead yards from the studio of East London design consultancy, Crescent Lodge. Influenced by the traditional craft of poster-making, they designed a stark graphic image to carry an unequivocal message onto the streets of East London, 200 times over. The “Eveningwear” poster may not have lasted much longer than one night out on the frequently flyered streets of clubland but it allowed Crescent Lodge to immediately respond to an issue it felt shouldn’t be ignored.