New Yorkers were surprised with free “special edition” copies of the New York Times on November 12 with the lead story “IRAQ WAR ENDS”. The issue which is dated July 4, 2009 also features articles on expanded bike paths and free universities among other positive news.

Noah Scalin, activist and founder of the award winning, socially conscious design & consulting firm Another Limited Rebellion and blogger at Osocio, was asked to make a top 10 list of his favourite blogs about design and activism at blogs.com. Osocio is listed, we’re proud! It gives me a good excuse to repost the list. And of course we’re curious about your favourite sites about design and activism. Personally i’m very interested in sites from ...

Mark from invisible people on Vimeo. “I once heard a story about a homeless man on Hollywood Blvd who really thought he was invisible. But one a day kid handed the man a Christian pamphlet. The homeless guy was shocked and amazed, “what! You can see me? How can you see me? I’m invisible!” Invisible People is a great and heartbreaking new project. It is a videoblog (vlog) made by Mark Horvath and it is ...

Guerilla advertising war scene! Seven members from the Iraq Veterans Against the War’s (IVAW) LA Chapter active on a early morning action on October 11th, placing 4,200 miniature soldiers around a gas station along with posters declaring “The Price of Gas: 4171 US SOLDIERS”.

At the 2008 Serious Play conference, designer Tim Brown talks 28 minutes about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play. Tim Brown, President and CEO of the multidisciplinary design firm IDEO, tells how we can learn the most from our shortest creators. Kids can inform our outlook on creativity by looking at exploration, building and role playing, as he explained, “forgetting the adult behaviors that are getting in the way our ideas.”

Re-born to be Alive is an organ donor foundation in Belgium. With this newspaper ad they (and their ad agency Duval Guillaume) won the “Standaard Solidarity Prize”. One organ donor can save 8 lives Another campaign and a bit more info after the jump.

To make aware of the dreadful possibility of losing a breast because of breast cancer fightbreastcancer.ae (United Arab Emirates) placed a mannequin with one breast at Bare Essentials, a lingerie and swinwear boutique. This was supported by breast self exam tags, stickers inside the fitting rooms as well as a website. The campaign was launched by the Ministry of Health and is running during the months October and November. Private hospitals and centres across the ...

“An employee is not a tool. Support 11.11.11 in their battle for decent/dignified work” more after the break

“Pollution is Closer than you think.” A nice simple ad that drives home it’s message.

Another campaign aimed to encourage US citizins to vote at the coming elections tomorrow. Remarkable that the campaign website is visual. No complex mission statements only this: “Don’t vote. Things are fine just the way they are. You can be that change. Vote. And encourage others to vote. Grab a poster. Print it. Spread the word.” The website contains twelve posters, three webbanners and a registration form.

Google groups, porn sites, slide.com, wordpress, YouTube… Blogger.com is the latest addition to this list of banned web sites in Turkey. After the passing of the new law, web sites in Turkey can be banned without a warning for several reasons: Obscenity: This of course leads to a whole lot of questions like “How to define obscenity” Promoting drug use Provoking suicide: Another open-to-interpretation clause. Would a movie about a suicidal teenager be promoting suicide? ...

WWF has long known that or entire planet is one delicate and complex set of relationships between species, people, habitats, governments and global market forces. We also know that meaningful conservation cannot take place without focusing on all of them. In an attempt to provide awareness to such cause, these ads communicate a preemptive message that if we are not informed of the dangers this planet faces, we leave possibilities of extinction in blind focus.

An exeptional campaign was launched last week at Tuesday October 21 in London. At that day AtheistCampaign.org started to raise £5,500 to run 30 buses across the capital for four weeks with the slogan: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” They reached the total just over 10 hours after launch!

Three ads from Children’s Hospital Foundations Australia, an Australia wide national alliance of children’s charities working together to fundraise in partnership with national corporate and business organisations for sick and injured kids in children’s hospitals.

A Guidebook from IDEO & Rockefeller Foundation. “With a new focus area on innovation, The Rockefeller Foundation is exploring new avenues for social change. One promising area is design and how the design industry can play a larger role in the social sector. This How-to Guide and the accompanying Workbook are written for design firms that are interested in joining in the conversation.” Guidebook Workbook

PETA jumped on current events with this small ad: Some background after the jump.

Two ads from the Czech Museum of Communism. Communists like Marx and Stalin had some human genes according to these visuals. The museum focuses on the totalitarian regime from the February coup in 1948 to its rapid collapse in November 1989. The theme of the Museum is “Communism- the Dream, the Reality, and the Nightmare” and visitors will be treated to a fully immersive experience.

As part of its campaign to raise consciousness about HIV/AIDS prevention in India, the BBC has launched condomcondom.org, where visitors can download a catchy a cappella ringtone for their mobile phones that consists of nothing but tuneful repetition of the word “condom.”

Only one campaign today, from the New Zealand Book Council. I’m going to read a book, bye.

IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) has launched a new campaign with the name project 551. With this campaign the IFAW wants to mobilise the Australian public in lobbying Japan to stop harvesting whales. The name is based on the fact that, last season the Government of Japan killed 551 whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. Project 551 wants the people of Australia to support by making a photo imaging a whale tail. By ...