black lives matter

The morning of July 4th, 2020, every single resident of the conservative West Virginian town of Petersburg opened their papers and saw this ad.

It was a passion project that came about late one night when a friend, and talented Art Director, Jessica Kesner called me asking for help. Her hometown friend, Harold Kuhn, raised money to buy out ad space for Black Lives Matter Movement in every paper in their West Virginian town. The only problem was they didn’t have an ad.

Harold wanted to educate his town on the movement, let supporters know they weren’t alone, and start a real conversation about race. But how do you start a conversation about racial injustice throughout America with people who have never left their front porch?

My approach was to try and level with them and appeal to what they care about most—their freedom. But, due to space, a lot of the more empathetic hand-holding and pie metaphors had to be cut.

The reaction was what you’d expect. People threatening to boycott the papers that ran the ad. A retaliation “All Lives Matter” ad was printed the following week equipped with its own flying eagle and waving flag. That’s fine. It got people talking.