…do a print campaign for Lisbon

Some people are wary of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty. They feel it’s like a big hammer hanging over their head.

How do you address those genuine fears? By running a print campaign in Irish newspapers, with big hammers hanging over people’s heads. This one looks like it’s battering the Equal Pay woman.

Exhibit #1: Hammering a message home

The designers have chosen the hammer to represent jobs. The EU = jobs with hammers. Right.

So why can’t I help thinking of the video for Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall”?

Exhibit #1b: The EU hammer

Exhibit #2: The Pink Floyd hammer

…spend €200,000 on a postcard

Oh-oh. They’ve let the creatives out of the playpen again. The condescending, infantile graphical theme continues in the Department of Foreign Affairs postcards being sent to 1.9 million households to push for a Yes vote in the Lisbon Treaty “purely for information purposes and not advocacy” of course.

The €220k (and counting) Lisbon Treaty postcards from the Department of Foreign Affairs

An bhful ceist agat? Yes, where are the free crayons to colour it in?

• See also: How not to do a Lisbon Treaty website

…do a Lisbon Treaty website

The cartoon characters on the Lisbon Treaty website

The Irish Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs has just launched a “public awareness” website (www.lisbontreaty.ie) to make the Lisbon Treaty more accessible.

Problem is, the site itself isn’t accessible. Not according to internationally recognised accessibility standards, such as the Web Accessibility Initiative.

Secondly, it’s written in Department of Affairs Speak.

Thirdly, it – and other marketing stuff like the postcards going out to every household – is based on cartoon characters. If the Government keeps insisting on treating us like children…