The Mighty Pencil Machine
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of International Literacy Day we collated messages of support, via our web app, from around the world. With our specially built Mighty Pencil Machine we printed these messages of support and turned them into pencils. The machine was housed at an art gallery in New York’s Tribeca where visitors could watch as their pencils were made with their message within. We designed the space in keeping with the campaign’s distinctive branding. The event also featured pencil portraits of people whose lives have been rewritten by learning to read and write. Julianne Moore attended the exhibition as the official ambassador and spoke to press around the world about Project Literacy.
Celebrity Support
To coincide with the exhibition and International Literacy Day, 26 of the world’s highest profile celebrities each adopted a letter from the Alphabet of Illiteracy. Amongst others, Elton John tweeted ‘A is for AIDS. Literacy helps stop its spread’, Lily Cole ‘I is for Infant Mortality. I’m working with #ProjectLiteracy to raise awareness’, Idris Elba ‘R is for Radicalization. Literacy helps tackle extremism’ and Usain Bolt ‘V is for Voiceless. Literacy allows people to be heard’.
Reach
7.7 million Twitter impressions. In the space of one week, #ProjectLiteracy achieved a reach of more than 10 million people on Facebook.
