Words that still matter
Last week as I happily went through another Valentine’s Day single – and not the I hate the celebration and want to be all anti type of single – I couldn’t help but cringe at the way this holiday has morphed over the years. Yes, it is still about the cards, candy and flowers. But it is also an excuse to be permissive, to drink too much, to hook up with strangers to drown out the pervasive loneliness. It’s overwhelming and disheartening at times.
The Love and Fidelity Network took a different approach to Valentine’s Day. Rather than focus on the single crazy day, the organization decided for a more long-lasting and positive message. From February 11-15, students at 25 universities, including Harvard, Georgetown, Stanford, and Holy Cross hung thousands of posters around campus, published ads in their school’s papers, and used social media to share a simple but profound campaign: Words That Still Matter.
According to the press release on the event… The 8 posters, which resemble vintage protest ads, each prominently feature a different aspirational word – integrity, dignity, strength, and romance – age-old virtues that matter no less today than they did centuries ago. Then follows the internal monologue a young man or woman might have regarding that word and how it applies to their sexual habits and their personal aspirations. By juxtaposing these positive words with raw personal reflections, the campaign seeks to show the discrepancy between what young men and women aspire to on the one hand, and where the hookup culture leads them on the other, demonstrating that these words do still matter. The website features animated versions of the posters as well as extended versions of each monologue that delve deeper into the young man or woman’s experience.
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