I dont know. The First Thing's First 2000 Manifesto is romantic and idealistic, but come on. This is the world we live in nowadays. The US economy is driven by commercialism, and we all need to pay the bills. I have to admit, it's nice to imagine a word were everything we design is just and right: stops hunger, cures cancer, no more depression! no more aids! breast cancer?! gone!.. but come on.
That little list just brought an example which I think is somewhat relevant here. Breast Cancer. Breast Cancer is not as nearly as dangerous as we think it is. WAIT! breast caner is still bad! but there are more prevalent, and far more fatal forms of cancer out there. shoot, as far as i know if you have breast cancer it's fairly easy to diagnose and treat. But why do we not know as much about those cancers as we do about breast cancer? It's because breast cancer has killer marketing and public relations. colon cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, thyroid cancer, leukemia, endometrial cancer, and kidney cancer are all looked past because there was a breast cancer walk last week and i forgot to care about the other cancers. I thought about lung cancer the other day, but I saw one of those pink ribbons on a woman's lapel and forgot to be concerned about the second hand smoke i was inhaling... and who are the people that design all the GRAPHICS and pamphlets and information?! im guessing at least a few digital artists.
Perhaps its not that we need to step away from advertising and its commercial form, but we just need to bend it and shape it to meet our requirements. Breast cancer is one of the least fatal cancers out there, but because it has great marketing and awareness, it has more funding than any other branch of cancer research.
All in all I think manifesto's are kind of pretentious, at least that's the sense of got from this manifesto. These artists call to the public for change, but are they quitting to posh advertising careers to make the world better? doubt it.
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