Project Literacy: advert-top-1 by FCB Inferno

FCB Inferno is continuing its work with Project Literacy, enlisting ad legend Mark Denton to help draw attention to the challenges associated with the issue of adult illiteracy.

The ‘Daunting World’ campaign for Project Literacy – a movement founded and convened by global education company Pearson to help advance global literacy – uses a series of images that bring to life some of the challenges faced by adults who struggle to read and write.

FCB Inferno partnered with Denton to create the images, a suite of eye-catching photographs taken by and art directed by Denton. They show everyday objects such as detergent bottles, greetings cards and board games, but on closer inspection of the image, the viewer will realize that the messages on each object explains the challenges these everyday objects can present for people who cannot read.

The stories behind the images are real, having been relayed to the Project Literacy team by the newly literate adults they have been working with as part of the campaign. One image of a medicine bottle, for example, directly reflects the story told by Wanda, a now-literate adult from Philadelphia, who movingly described the anxiety she felt each time she had to give her children medicine when they were sick because she could not read the instructions on the packaging.