Action Week Campaign

The action week which recently took place at KDSS, is only one of many which have been held throughout Western Ontario these past weeks. Action week was developed by committee of dedicated youth during a Youth Conference held in Grand Bend this past September. As the theme of the conference this year was tobacco awareness, prevention, and how tobacco is advertised through the media; the Action Week campaign was developed surrounding the idea of how we are being “branded” by the tobacco companies. The term “branded” is used to describe the process in which youth are made to believe that what a company is selling; which would usually be thought of as “wrong” or “dangerous”, to being the “norm” (de-normalization). This is done through media exposure to the ads put out by big companies, which display their products in a positive light. The de-normalization of tobacco in particular, is a major issue considering the fact that their product causes the user harm. And so it was decided by the committee that action must be taken to better educate the public on big company’s tactics. The Action Week committee further broadened the purpose of its campaign to “branding” in general, in order to reach a greater target audience about the effects of big company’s advertising. 

The activities incorporated in Action Week, which was sponsored by i-think, were designed to make youth think about what they are being fed by “big company” advertising, and to understand that they should not have to wear certain brands in order to be accepted. The activities were rolled out throughout the course of 4 days and followed the flowing schedule. On day one a black box with a single light bulb (which is the logo for i-think) was placed in the main school hallway. The next day a variety of logos of big companies which targeted you to “brand” were placed on the box. On the third day red Xs were placed through all of the logos with the words “Brand Name” over the top. The Xs represented the fact that you should not let “branding” influence your decisions on what you eat, how you dress etc., and the phrase “brand name” represented the fact that people chose these brands for no other reason that, they are “brand name”. Secondly on this day it was revealed to KDSS what the box was all about, and that a competition would be held the next day to see who could wear the least number of brand names on their clothing. Also on Wednesday, all student council members of KDSS wore a t-shirt advertising i-think, and sporting the catch-phrase “I am not a walking billboard. This t-shirt not only brought awareness to the campaign which was happening that week, but also ironically showed how hard it was live “brand free” as while wearing these t-shirts to bring awareness to the Action Week campaign, we were in fact also advertising the company i-think. The “brand free” competition was held on the final day of Action Week, and offered prizes to students who either did not wear any brand names, or to those who were willing to cover up their brand names with a sticker.

Through an understanding of branding and the fact that youth are trying to be “branded” by big company’s conscious decisions can then be made. Whether it be as simple as choosing clothes, or as serious as choosing whether or not to use tobacco products, it is hoped that youth are better equipped to make their own decisions through the knowledge administered in this campaign.