4th Amendment Wear: 4th Amendment Wear

Credits & Description:

Type of Entry: Strategy
Category: Best Low Budget Campaign
Title: 4TH AMENDMENT WEAR
Advertiser/Client: 4TH AMENDMENT WEAR
Product/Service: METALLIC INK UNDERCLOTHES
Entrant Company: 4TH AMENDMENT WEAR Boulder, USA
DM/Advertising Agency: 4TH AMENDMENT WEAR Boulder, USA
Creative Director: Matthew Ryan
Creative Director: Tim Geoghegan
Art Director: Matthew Ryan
Copywriter: Tim Geoghegan
Designer: Matthew Ryan
Typography: Matthew Ryan
Illustrator: Matthew Ryan
Interactive Art Director: Matthew Ryan
Describe the brief from the client:
How could we get Americans to question just how far they were willing to go to be safe?
Were they really willing to forfeit some of the very principles the country was built on?
It was a question we didn't think the TSA had fully pondered.
So we invented a product to force them to consider that very question.
Metallic Ink Printed Underclothes readable on TSA body scanner machines.
4th Amendment Wear is specifically designed to broadcast messages to TSA X-ray officers just when they are peeking at your privates.
Creative Execution:
4th Amendment Wear made a statement without having to say a word. It used the very act of invading someone’s privacy to communicate a message that questioned how far Americans were willing to sacrifice that sense of privacy. It gave the wearer a sense of individual liberty to be able to express their concerns, while not causing a disturbance.
We were the first product to ever be designed and tested to specifically appear in shape and letter form under backscatter scanning machines.
A silent protest against the new reality of being searched to the point where we’re basically naked.
Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.
We invented a proprietary metallic ink that displays any designed image or message on the TSA scanner screens.
We created Undergarments printed with metallic ink that display the 4th Amendment - the amendment to the US Constitution that protected American citizens against unreasonable searches.
So whenever a TSA agent peeked at a traveler's privates, they would be confronted by the very law they were accused if violating.
It was a way to make a statement...without saying a word.
The concept behind 4th Amendment Wear is simple: to get Americans to think a little more about their constitutional rights. The website was linked to other anti-xray sites, and traffic quickly built up as word spread.
Describe the results in as much detail as possible.
Our website 4thamendmentwear.com received 1,205,397 hits the weekend of launch (November 20th 2010).
We received over 3.4 million hits on the site in less than 3 weeks from around the world.
4th Amendment Wear sold out of the first immediately. 4th Amendment Wear sold out again 3 days after restocking.
After thousands of pre-orders, wholesale requests, retail buyers wanting to stock 4th Amendment Wear and worldwide distribution offers. 4th Amendment Wear is launching on a mass production basis in the US.