Chemistry's "Big Facts Small Acts" -- Making a Difference, on a Tight Budget

ANA What was the motivation behind Big Facts Small Acts and the mural projectBreen The community of Southwest Atlanta was the motivation Sheri Scott a friend and colleague recognized very quickly that public health advice was not having an impact in her community and asked for our help in finding a different way to reach out to the community since existing efforts were falling on deaf earsANA What did you see as the biggest challenges when you were first brainstormingBreen There were a lot of challenges We had to act fast because the pandemic wasn39t going to wait for us to perfect our messages We also didn39t have a lot of money to work with Sheri literally started the nonprofit agency Big Facts Small Acts with her 600 stimulus check The real challenge though was how to break down the barriers between our community and the message There is a long history of mistrust between the Black community and government especially as it relates to the medical community When you think of the government trying to impart a vaccination or a social distancing message your mind instantly goes to the Tuskegee Experiments but there39s a long history of medical abuses toward the Black community Understanding this we couldn39t just reiterate what the CDC had said or wheel out a celebrity Others were already trying that but there was a trust barrier those messages couldn39t overcomeANA You39ve done street art projects in the past was this the first idea you hadBreen Actually no Our first idea was around music Atlanta has a ton of amazing musicians especially in the Hip Hop scene We thought partnering with those artists to remake iconic covers of their albums to include masks could be a great way to get the message out especially to the younger audiences But there were obstacles with this approach and in the end it would not have had the grassroots impact we were looking for There were also other social dynamics colliding at the same time We weren39t just dealing with the politicization of the pandemic and masks the country was confronted with the murders of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd so in that collective moment we felt that it was important that our message came from the community as a grassroots rallying cry It was critical that this was not perceived as manufactured We kept kicking around ideas and then realized that we could take the same concept and apply it to street art We39ve worked with a number of incredible muralists and Atlanta is a hub for that as well Street artists really are political activists and have a certain level of inherent credibility that you just can39t fakeANA What input did the artists have on the projectBreen They were extremely important in helping us define our message and build out our concept Fabian Williams especially was integral to the project He39s a brilliant artist who actually has a background in advertising but he39s also a political activist and powerful voice in the community He looked at what we were trying to do from a different perspective and felt strongly that the message behind the push to wear masks really needed to feel positive and come from a place of belonging to something bigger than oneself For the first message on the first mask he insisted on the headline being quotWe will survivequot And that insight really helped fuel the entire campaignANA So you put masks on muralsBreen Yes We tried to figure out how we could change the murals to have a message without obviously permanently altering them in any way We came up with the idea of covering dozens of iconic pieces of highly visible street art throughout the community in a show of solidarity Some of the murals are massive 50foottall iconic images woven into the fabric of the community People drive by them every day It was striking We felt it wasn39t necessarily our job to make a tutorial on how to social distance or why to wear a mask We just wanted to make the act of wearing a mask be viewed as something the community could get behindANA What lessons did you learn from this project that you will take with youBreen Thinking back there are two The first is that sometimes you have to be okay with building the plane while you39re flying it I think that39s the biggest lesson really In some ways we reverseengineered this project We identified the problem thought of a potential solution made it happen and then got funding for it And I know that39s not always possible but the traditional route of seeking funding focus groups testing and then doing wasn39t going to work My other takeaway is about collaboration And honestly that is a lesson I have learned over the years as I have become part of Atlanta39s creative community which is predominately driven by Black creators There is so much talent and a refreshing spirit of collaboration to make things for the greater good and the success of all I think that is something our industry can learn from I know it is a lesson I try to apply to my agency every day You really don39t know how great something can be until you try to get everyone to contributeClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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Chemistry's "Big Facts Small Acts" -- Making a Difference, on a Tight Budget

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"About That with Carl Mayer": Involved Media Connected Audience Fall 2024 Report (Episode 5) - By Carl Mayer

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Chemistry's "Big Facts Small Acts" -- Making a Difference, on a Tight Budget

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