#StickItToTheMan
In your face, Boris Johnson!
The Local Government Association reported in 2017 that the clear-up of chewing gum costs councils £60million! So, we got thinking about how we could clean up these ghastly, gum-ridden streets of LDN. Taking a leaf out of Boris’ book, after all, his mantra is: “there are no disasters, only opportunities”, we recognised a chance for protest and proactivity. The #stickittotheman fly posters offer the chance for pedestrians to peacefully protest while helping to clean up our streets one piece of gum at a time.
It can be easy to feel helpless and ignored when faced with our current sticky political situation. The posters allow people to enjoy micro moments of civil disobedience, having their voices heard whilst keeping our pavements clear of gum.
George McCallum, Senior Creative
The Power of Print
As an agency, Don’t Panic has never been shy when it comes to provoking political conversations - in fact, it’s how we began, with the infamous Don’t Panic packs of the noughties. Distributed across the UK, featured in bars, uni’s, shops and given out at clubs across the country, each contained a beautifully designed poster that tackled a political, social or cultural topic. Our goal was to get people to think about the issues, rather than just politics. Boris Johnson’s recent elevation to PM, off the back of a rhetoric that’s likely to damage the UK economy and betray London, the city that he once led, persuaded us to unleash the posters once again and hit the streets of our capital.
We believe agencies shouldn’t just understand and appreciate culture and politics but that they should take part in it on behalf of their clients or for themselves. In this digital age, we forget the power of print and how it can leverage reach; generating PR, particularly when media has a layer of interactivity, that gets people engaged.
Joe Wade, Co-Founder of Don't Panic
Press & Social
The stunt was picked up by the press, published in the likes of AdAge and It's Nice That. It also caused a spike in social engagement and interaction; our traffic levels and followers climbed dramatically across each platform! Not bad for a sneaky, low-budget stunt.
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#StickItToTheMan, Boris Johnson Stunt
We covered the streets of London with Boris Johnson’s face with some handy instructions: ‘simply stick your gum and go’. Our #stickittotheman stunt is an opportunity for people to have fun while demonstrating their grievance to the appointment of this non-elected Prime Minister.
