April 16, 2003

KIMBERLY CROSS IS comfortable tossing off corporate lingo like "branding," "strategic goal," and "target demographic." But she's not talking about moving more mouthwash. While war protesters around the world attack McDonald's as an icon of American imperialism, this 37-year-old Bay Area graphic designer deploys the tools of corporate marketing to promote peace. And while burning Ronald McDonald's red head in effigy is no doubt its own reward, her brand of resistance subverts by reaching out to a more mainstream audience.

After all, the Pentagon and the White House know how to market to the masses, so why shouldn't the same slick tactics and polished imagery be used against them? "They're using branding as a way of promoting their war agenda," Cross says. "I thought, 'I know how to do this. Let's beat them at their own game. Let's make peace the new black.' "

The White House warmongers sold their preemptive war with unabashed slogans like "Operation Iraqi Freedom," "axis of evil," and "coalition of the willing," which Cross argues "could just as appropriately be called 'Let's Bomb Civilians in Order to Gain Control of Their Resources,' 'people who bug us,' and 'other suckers.' " So this January she launched an "anti-campaign," a collection of copyright-free peace posters by top commercial designers and illustrators that can be downloaded for free from her Web site, www.anotherposterforpeace.com. One of the designers, Milton Glaser, created the "I Heart New York" campaign. Another, Sam Smidt, has work in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Others have designed for corporate clients like Microsoft and Pacific Bell. In other words, you may not know their names, but they've probably sold you something.

Cross has received more than 100 submissions and gives away 14 on her site. She rules out posters that are profane or partisan; there's no "Trim That Fucking Bush" or "Bush, Dick, and Colin: No Wonder We're Getting Screwed" here. That's because her target demographic is more mainstream – people like her aunt, who is "middle-class, not too politically involved, and turned off by extremism" but opposed to war. "Peace also takes courage," reads one red, white, and blue sign. A cutesy poster shows a bird feeding on miniature guns, tanks, and bombs and excreting flowers, under the kindergarten slogan "Poop Them Out." Others are, as an ad guy might say, "edgier." A black bomb with "Your Name Here" written on it falls against a red backdrop. An entirely black globe accompanies the slogan "Our World After the War."

Cross's own sign is a parody of that shopping-is-patriotic campaign whose posters were ubiquitous for months after Sept. 11. The original pictured a shopping bag made out of the American flag with the slogan "America: Open for Business." Her parody shows a black bomb sticking out of the American-flag shopping bag, under the words "Don't Buy It. War Is Not the Answer." Nobel laureate Jody Williams, who won the 1997 peace prize for her work against land mines, held that last one aloft at a protest at the White House recently. And Cross has received e-mails and photos from protesters who've used the posters in Los Angeles, New York, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Sacramento, and Barcelona.

The problem with creating a marketing campaign for peace, however, is that, unlike the Pentagon or an automaker, you can't control its dissemination. You can only add your images and slogans to the homegrown cacophony that's already out there and hope they resonate with others and spread, like the peace sign, which grew out of the no-nukes movement. The most professional peace message aspires to be assimilated into folk art.

And is it even still relevant to talk protest marketing strategy when the American news is full of U.S. troops toppling statues of Saddam in Baghdad, surrounded by crowds of cheering Iraqis? Cross thinks so, citing the "Santa's naughty list" of other countries the hawks in the White House hanker to take on next. "Operation Iraqi Freedom" brand extensions! Sept. 11, 2001, has even become its own brand, captured in the iconic numerals 9/11 and complete with visuals, spokespeople, and spin-off campaigns. Think: Bush invoking the image of the towers falling to sell Gulf War II, "which despite the astounding lack of evidence linking Iraq to 9/11," Cross says, "manages to be linked in the minds of 40 percent of the U.S. population. This is the power of branding at work in world politics."

The administration's next marketing vehicle: Hi magazine, a glossy title to be published by the State Department and distributed in Arab countries to "educate" their citizens about American culture. Cross, who in her day job at a San Francisco firm does designs for national chains and retail packaged goods, knows what that means: the United States is not just making a bald propaganda play in the war on terrorism but trying to "acclimate [people] to American lifestyles" to create new markets for American goods.

A year from now, she predicts: chipper news stories about the first McDonald's opening up in Baghdad.