BED 3 CASE STUDY

Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute and Law Center (Public Awareness Campaign)

OBJECTIVE

To help this public-interest group convince voters in targeted Denver neighborhoods to vote against three 2010 ballot initiatives that the group believed would harm the State of Colorado — and especially the state’s education system and low-socioeconomic communities.

SOLUTION

We essentially waged two messaging campaigns to achieve the client’s desired result: one powerfully and directly addressed voter apathy, and the other directly explained how these three ballot initiatives would harm Colorado’s schools and low-income neighborhoods.

Though the messages were different, they were complementary — and we carefully and consistently linked them.

Our anti-apathy messaging powerfully reminded people of the battles that were waged and the chains that were broken to secure their right to vote. Subtle, secondary art elements and taglines directed people to vote against the ballot initiatives. The implication: if voters failed to quash those initiatives, they could find themselves again in shackles.

Our anti-ballot-initiative messaging explained how tax revenue supported valuable community services — services that were especially important to the poor and physically disabled and to many hardworking families struggling to make ends meet.

The designs featured below show how we successfully educated and persuaded the Fiscal Policy Institute and Law Center’s target audiences.