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Unruled Masses

Poster Campaigns

Action ID: ACT_025 Action Group: Communications with a Wider Audience

Poster campaigns in public spaces and community venues to inform, mobilize, and direct people toward concrete actions.

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Use When

Officials push through opaque, no-bid contracts or public–private surveillance deals.

Authorities restrict public comment, move meetings online without notice, or shorten speaking time.

Police use lethal force against protesters.

Instructions

  1. 1

    Conceptualize the visual intervention by selecting high-traffic public corridors and defining how a targeted display campaign directly counters institutional opacity or corruption.

  2. 2

    Sharpen the public message into an accessible headline under eight words, a brief plain-language explanation, and one explicit digital call to action.

  3. 3

    Form a disciplined postering team, assigning specific responsibilities for graphic layout, localized risk assessment, physical distribution, and digital impact monitoring.

  4. 4

    Connect with local free-expression legal allies and artistic activist networks to review ordinances and source downloadable, high-contrast templates.

  5. 5

    Operationalize the campaign by mapping specific high-traffic transit nodes, university campuses, and permission-based community boards to maximize reach.

  6. 6

    Build advance public presence by pre-testing layout readability from five meters and organizing secure, multilingual digital landing pages.

  7. 7

    Engage media channels by preparing a press packet containing print-ready files, location maps, and the underlying evidentiary data.

  8. 8

    Execute the distribution with strict nonviolent discipline, utilizing rotating buddy teams, wearing reflective safety vests, and documenting installed posters via photography.

  9. 9

    Anchor the post-action narrative by tracking QR code scan metrics, refreshing weathered materials, and systematically publicizing online engagement to partners.

Historic Parallels

  • Paris, 1968, student posters unified 10 million strikers, bypassing state media to win a major wage hike.
  • Gdańsk, 1980, shipyard posters broke a media blackout, informing the public and winning independent trade union rights.
  • Hong Kong, 2014, crowdsourced "Lennon Walls" sustained a 79-day protest and forced global media coverage of electoral crises.

Modern Examples

  • Posters use icons and links to expose companies benefiting from rushed, secretive infrastructure deals.
  • Tenants create multilingual posters for laundromats, churches, and clinics that explain illegal rent hikes.
  • Students design posters mapping campus censorship, linking to petitions, teach-ins, and encrypted reporting forms.

Participants

Individual

Yes

3–5 people coordinating design, legal review, and mapping, plus 10–20 volunteers for printing, distribution, weekly refresh, and follow-up outreach at key locations.

Helpful Materials

  • Weather-resistant posters
  • Clipboards
  • Markers
  • Reflective vests
  • Flashlights
  • Headlamps

References

Use of Action Playbook educational materials must adhere with Unruled Masses’ Terms of Service.

Stay Nonviolent. Coordinate Strategically. Take Back Your Power.

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