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Activism Saturday Morning Advertising Week

Saturday Morning introduces Peace Briefs, a line of underwear designed to save lives

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By Kyle O'Brien, Creative Works Editor

September 28, 2017 | 4 min read

The founders of Saturday Morning, a movement created to use creativity to address issues of racial and social inequality, have invented a new line of underwear that states that the wearer doesn’t want any trouble.

Peace Briefs

Peace Briefs, introduced by Saturday Morning

Peace Briefs are underpants with purpose-built waist bands. Inscribed on the bands of each pair are words that are designed to impact any potential crisis with police and minorities. The lines include: I Am Not Armed, Please Don’t Shoot, I Have a Family, My Life Matters, I Am a Father, and We Don’t Hate.

Peace Briefs

“When we started Saturday Morning, our goal was to use our super powers – which for us is creativity – to create ideas, solutions and products that could impact the issues of racial injustice and division that our country faces today,” stated Geoff Edwards, co-founder of Saturday Morning and co-head of creative at CAA. “Wearing a pair of Peace Briefs is a way for inner city youths and minorities to express their values and beliefs peacefully.”

Saturday Morning launched last year with the goal of inviting the creative community to share ideas for solving its creative 'Peace Brief': ‘The police and the community they serve. How do we reduce the violence?’ They received over 8,000 ideas from students at Syracuse University and hundreds submitted through its website from designers, artists, musicians and others. Together, the founders solved their own brief when the idea for Peace Briefs came together amongst themselves.

“This is a simple but powerful idea. We believe that a pair of underwear could potentially save lives, especially in a city like Chicago where the concentration of dissidence between the police and the south side of the City is at all-time high. In 2016 there were 762 murders recorded, the highest in the history of the city,” explained Keith Cartwright, co-founder of Saturday Morning and executive creative director at Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners. “Our hope is that the simple messages on the waist bands will help ease the tension and reduce the violence.”

The Peace Briefs are available online and the collective plans to use proceeds from the sale of the briefs to fund free distribution of the briefs to inner city youths in Chicago, Los Angeles and other urban markets.

“Brands have long reigned on the waist bands and pockets of apparel as a stamp worn with pride. We believe our briefs carry a great purpose and a message of peace. As creative individuals we will continue to look for new ways to extend and build on the Peace Briefs,” said Jayanta Jenkins, co-founder and global creative director at Twitter.

Images for the campaign were shot by Decon street photographer Estevan Oriol.

Saturday Morning introduced its Peace Briefs during a session at Advertising Week in New York, where the group also announced its work with the CEO Council on Diversity & Inclusion, a partnership with Proctor & Gamble, and new educational alliances with Syracuse University and VCU’s Brand Center. A year ago, the group announced its Peace Brief push to engage the industry, so this sees success from the idea.

Activism Saturday Morning Advertising Week

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