When you go to museums it usually involves learning about something, some place, or someone else. The Exploratorium’s new Science of Sharing exhibits are something completely different. You actually learn about yourself.
Will you like what you learn about “you?” Ponder that, people.
We partnered with the Exploratorium to promote the exhibits to the entire Bay area. But first we had to learn everything we could about The Science of Sharing. Similar to chemistry and physics, there’s also a science behind human thought and behavior. The Science of Sharing exhibits take societal challenges—like trust, cooperation and competition—and turns them into fun, problem-solving activities and experiences.
The aim of the exhibits is to generate discussion and provoke thought around why we do the things we do? So we thought: why not create ads that do just that? Get Bay area residents pondering their behavior right in their native environment.
From bus shelters to digital billboards to coffee sleeves, we sure got some citizen self-examination started. The units featured a hashtag (#SocialDilemma) so they could weigh in on why they do the things they do. But we went way beyond just ads. We also made the discussion mobile by taking over San Francisco MUNI trains and turning them into “Conversation Cars.”
Each Conversation Car posed questions that were relevant to a rider’s experience and got commuters contemplating their behavior. Do you put your bags on the seat, or at your feet? Should you just sit there, or is it okay to start talking to strangers? Is MUNI a cell-free zone, or do you annoy riders that are even three cars away by blabbing loudly and incessantly on your phone for fifteen consecutive stops? (Not that we’re judging.)
We also posed San Franciscans with perhaps one of the most pressing dilemmas of our times … especially in a city where dogs outnumber children.
A guerrilla-style marketing dump in the form of hundreds of pieces of fake dog poop scattered in San Francisco parks and on city streets was launched. Each “land mine” featured a sign asking passersby if they’d clean up after their dogs if no one was around. The stunt was so attention-grabbing that our fake canine crap became collector’s items as people scooped them up and carried them home.
