Calling all creative hooligans – support The Drum’s Pussy Riot Appeal
The plight of Pussy Riot has captured the imagination of musicians and creatives across the globe.
Last week three of the Russian Punk Band - Maria Alekhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Ekaterina Samucevich - were convicted of hooliganism and jailed for two years. Their crime? Staging a protest against the Russian Orthodox church’s support for President Putin that took the form an impromptu performance at Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral.
If these standards existed here, half the people The Drum writes about would also be serving time behind bars. Our Fauxlympics campaign and Chip Shop Awards would have seen many of you locked up.
The sentences were an attack on freedom of expression and an attack on civil society. You can argue that their protest was not in the best of taste. But there is an international consensus that these sentences are disproportionate.
The music industry has rallied around – and a variety of benefit concerts have been held to help raise funds for the Pussy Riot defence. Meanwhile, stars such as Madonna have thrown their weight behind the cause.
But The Drum believes the creative marketing community is uniquely placed to help too. There are so many elements associated with this punk band that add up to some pretty lucrative intellectual property – everything from their name to their trademark brightly coloured balaclavas.
So we would like industry to help show how these opportunities might raise money for their cause – a marketing version of a benefit concert in other words.
We would like you to suggest merchandise options – t-shirt designs, posters, umbrellas, mugs and balaclava slogans. Stuff people would love to wear to show their support for Pussy Riot and their faith in freedom of expression: the bedrock of creativity itself.
The Drum will publish all the work on our website and Facebook page. And the ideas that prove the most popular we will arrange to have made – and sold – with all the proceeds going to the Pussy Riot defence fund.
If you’d like to take part, submit your designs in JPG form to riotappeal@thedrum.com by 7 September.
The Drum's Pussy Riot Appeal has already won the backing of criminal law and human rights specialist Niall McCluskey.