Debtcard

Describe your idea and concept of your work in relation to the festival outlines:

I remember looking at a TV show a few years back, where financial specialists came to the rescue of ordinary people who got themselves almost to bankrupt. The main reasons for their position, apart from theire urge to buy everything, were credit cards (the banks almost forced them to get one, they just forgot to mention, that for every unpaid bill they are going to charge interests on the amount he owes at a much higher rate and later other fees). So it got me thinking…

A credit card is a well known payment instrument we all use. In nowadays practically everyone has one. With the growing use of internet it has become almost essential, in an digital world you can’t even live without it. But if you look at the definition of it »The issuer of the card creates a revolving account and grants a line of credit to the consumer (or the user) from which the user can borrow money for payment to a merchant or as a cash advance to the user… credit cards allow the consumers a continuing balance of debt, subject to interest being charged«, you can probably see a similarity in the current economic situation.

We choose the credit card for showing how a simple and massively used innocent plastic piece can put us in a position of indebtedness, where banks and governments supporting this monetary system are creating never-ending and self-escalating debt… impoverishing common people.

What kind of communication approach do you use?

We choose social marketing as governments use it to »change« the behavior of people and warn them of the consequences of their actions/use of certain products (such as alcohol, tobacco etc.). The warning signs that they use to persuade us to stop smoking are useless. We used it to show them how useless their campaigns actually are and because we assume this is how they would address the current situation.

What are in your opinion concrete benefits to the society because of your communication?

We hope people will start to see how their everyday behavior (need to constantly buy products), puts them in a position of enslavement and realize that their actions only benefit their enslavers (banks, multinationals, governments). Hopefully they’ll start acting more responsively.

What did you personally learn from creating your submitted work?

Never use credit cards! Always think twice before buying! Don’t listen to people who created and are skillfully using capitalism for their own profit and your loss.

Why is your work, GOOD communication WORK?

Because it is simple, straightforward and represents all aspects of debt and the crisis we are in (consumers, banks, governments, fictional money, debt, addiction, enslavement).

Where and how do you intent do implement your work?

The idea is to make exact replicas of credit cards showed in the work (using cardboard or some other material) and distribute it to people. Everything depends on money :)

Did your intervention had an effect on other Media. If yes, describe the effect? (Has other media reported on it- how? Were you able to change other media with your work- how?)

Not yet.