I saw an amazing public awareness campaign yesterday.

I came across it first in the bus on the way to work. One of the few overhead ad-panels I’ve ever really cackled at; a cartoonish illustration of a guy wearing a hardhat and a confused expression, with a bloody length of rebar stuck through his head.

“Win an MP3 player and other cool stuff” was written in big letters, along with “Workplace Safety” and “Join the contest and win!”. Highly incongruous and ironic copy given the image. The people next to me were cackling at it too.

I memorized the url on the ad and checked the website as soon as I got to work. And hey – it’s fantastic. Full of craziness and craftiness, and also lessons about workplace safety. It’s really excellent work and I salute whomever made it.

It turns out – as i was informed by my knowledgeable colleagues – that the client,
the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario has done this sort of thing before, in a freaky tv campaign called Prevent It, which can be seen on YouTube, here and here.

And what struck me is, “Here, at last, is a client that takes risks!” Hallelujah!
Possibly this is because risk is their stock and trade, and because lives are at stake, but they deserve credit anyway, because intelligent and effective risk-taking in advertising is all too rare in Canada, though in other places, like the UK, it is common. (I mean, who can forget this risque classic?)

Very few clients are willing to take risks, for all kinds of reasons, none of them good, and collectively we suffer for it. And individually those organizations that do not take risks suffer too, losing their edge and their energy, and failing to translate their strategic visions into reality.

Of course risk inevitably involves an element of, well, risk. Whereas when you go for the same-old same-old you can be sure that whatever else happens, you won’t fail. At least not by standing out. But from an organizational perspective that’s risky too, because in the end campaigns fail by not standing out. Everyone has seen that kind of familiar failure, mediocrity tacitly approved, simply because it’s less risky to ignore than to critique.

I think part of the problem is that organizations tend to diffuse risk-taking, and when individuals do go out on a limb and advocate a ‘risky’ strategy, they become vulnerable to scapegoating if – for whatever reason – the execution does not match the original vision. Maybe organizations should have designated ‘risk takers’ who are expected to take risks and aren’t so vulnerable to scapegoating.

Another reason organizations fail to take useful risks is that employees often seem to feel they need to shield their bosses from seeing ‘wacky’ ideas. Whereas, in my experience, the higher up the ladder you go the more open decision-makers are to taking risks, and the greater their ability to see the potential benefits of trying something new. So I guess what I’m saying is that organizations that want to succeed by standing out rather than fail by staying in line need to create a culture of risk-taking that reaches from top to bottom and back up again.

Innovation always includes a measure of risk. But creative, intelligent and targeted risk-taking can produce results that really do the job, that really succeed, and that really matter.

Anything else, as Ontario’s Worker Safety Insurance Board evidently knows, is asking for trouble.

Under 18: Blogs, Wikis and Online Social Networks for Youth

The panel introductions, particularly Danah boyd, launched in with an interesting view on the current segmentation of youth, how it came to be and new behaviour that has arisen due to the following properties of the web: persistence, searchability, replicability, and the invisible audience. Essentially, the idea is the internet gives access to a public life that may not be available otherwise and especially so for rural communities or the younger end of the age group.

The focus of the panel was to explore the range between “young people are in mortal danger” and “the internet is fulfilling inner potential.” The panel spent the majority of the time reviewing the dangers to youth online and, most importantly, solutions.

Of course a major danger, is online predators. In May 2006, Deleting Online Predators Act was proposed to protect youth. The premise was to restrict youth access at schools and libraries to websites with any social aspect including the likes of MySpace but also Wikipedia. Its almost obvious that this is the wrong approach. To fully understand the phenomenon, what has to first happen is an acceptance by parents that this is more than a trend. Only then can a dialogue occur between parent adn child.

The problem isn’t the websites or the technology. Kids know to delete emails from strangers. The internet is an outlet and a mirror to what is really going on with a kid. The negative aspect highlighted in the media isn’t because the website provides a certian channel of communication. An interesting point is social workers should be online on MySpace and other social forums and helping through that medium as well.

Cheating and plaigirism are major issues in school. What is really interesting is the nature of the internet encourages remixing, sharing and collaborating. How does one explain plaigirism when content generation on the web means copying and sharing music, video, code, technique, and ideas. Traditional systems have to be intelligent and will have to learn from these social trends.

Of course there is a very strong positive side. One of the first points brought up is that social websites are good for quiet and shy kids, it is good for kids in isolated communities or those that feel isolated socially. It allows an opportunity for mentoring.

76design has a few upcoming youth oriented projects and we hope to achieve the ideals that were discussed.

The panelists really came across as knowledgable and I strongly recommend following some of the links below.

Speakers:

• Andrea Forte Georgia Institute of Technology
• danah boyd USC Annenberg Center – apophenia
• Anastasia Goodstein Publisher, Ypulse and author of “Totally Wired: What teens and tweens are doing online”
• Kate Raynes-Goldie TakingITGlobal: an online community that connects youth to find inspiration, access information, get involved, and take action in their local and global communities.
• Erin Reilly Exec Dir, Platform Shoes Forum
• Elisabeth Sylvan Researcher, MIT Media Laboratory Lifelong Kindergarten: new technologies that, in the spirit of the blocks and fingerpaint of kindergarten, expand the range of what people can design, create, and learn.