Free the meta
Concept | art direction
The nipple. It connects us as human beings and at the same time comes with all kinds of issues that divides us.
Cubesat launches its first billboard in space with a message for the inhabitants on planet earth. Meta takes this change to make a statement against their own discriminating policy, with the thought to bring back humanity as a whole.
Willem de Kooning Academie, 2021
FREE THE NIPPLE
For Meta, a female nipple violates their policies and guidelines, but a male nipple, on the other hand, is accepted. This is discrimination based on gender and for them to decide that someone who identifies as queer or trans is a "woman," is violation of human rights. We live in a world with a lot of divisions, to me a nipple is what connects us as human beings. Therefore, Meta being one of the most influential companies on the planet in combination with their policies and guidelines, should be the brand that makes a statement about this to the inhabitants on planet earth.
THE OUTCOME
With the small addition of 4 circles, the Meta logo turns into 2 stylized breasts. In addition to this key visual, an experiment was done with people who were allowed to let their imagination loose on the Meta logo. This used existing elements, such as the image when they report "sensitive content."
FOLLOW-UP EXPERIMENT
In Jan 2023, Meta announced that their oversight board has called for an overhaul to the company’s rules banning bare-chested images of women - but not men.
I saw this as an opportunity to put the key visual on Instagram and see if they still have a hard time to see the difference between the nipples of men, women, trans, nonbinary people or their own modified logo.
THE INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT GOT SUSPENDED,
THE DAY AFTER.
IT DOESN'T FOLLOW THEIR OWN GUIDELINES.
