2009 Philip C. Jessup Competition Campaign

2009 PHILIP C. JESSUP COMPETITION CAMPAIGN

This years Philip C. Jessup competition, addresses important andtimely issues regarding intervention and state sovereignty, which wascommunicated in the main event poster and supporting collateral. Theevent is widely recognized as the world's largest, most prestigiousmoot court competition focusing on public international law.

With a smaller budget to that of previous years, a cohesive andmemorable experience still needed to be created for the participantswhile heightening the awareness of international human rights issuesand further enhancing the overall experience for the 50th yearcelebration.

For the 2009 campaign, a mark composed of three symbols of aid,target, and skull and crossbones, was created that would resonate withthe participants both during and after the competition. The individualsymbols were represented on the poster series, each focusing on adifferent aspect of the case. The aid and skull and crossbones postersbear the words of the respective authorities from the fictional case onone side with supporting text from United Nations documentations onthe reverse side. To communicate a universal message, the target posterbrings to light current and past conflicts of intervention and the lackthereof.
To reduce printing costs associated with creating separate eventsignage and promotional posters, the three posters were combined on asingle press sheet. Several press sheets were pulled prior to trimmingand served as signage for the duration of the event. There was plentyof prepress experimentation that had to be done in order for theindividual posters to work as a unit. The remaining budget went intopurchasing the participants' gift, a "survival kit", which unlikeprevious years tied back to the theme.

The campaign has been the most comprehensive in the seven-year spanthat Shearman & Sterling has been sponsoring the event. Between theprinted materials, participant gifts, and the physical experience ofdebating on an important and timely case, the audience is left with agreater awareness of the responsibility to protect against genocide,ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.