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During the performance festival ‘The subjectivity of goodness’ Mathijs and I made a very simple A4 poster saying: “Don’t give goodness a change”. We spread these posters through the village of Drachten during one night. The saying counterparts the moral slogans presented on advertisements in public space, telling you how to behave. This moral education in public space tries to contribute to the regulation of the social behaviour of citizens. Some examples of popular Dutch moral slogans: ‘De maatschappij dat ben jij’ (you’re the society), ‘Alcohol maakt meer kapot dan je lief is’ (Alcohol ruins more things you intend to love), ‘Weet wat je te doen staat als het om geweld gaat’ (Know what to do when it comes to violence) etc.
Our slogan ‘Don’t give goodness a change’ was too evil to be true, though it shocked people. But we made it easy for the public to change the meaning of the slogan into the opposite. If someone filled the ‘g’ of ‘geen’ with a black pencil, it became: Give goodness a change’ After one night fifty percent of the posters was removed. After one week the meaning of thirty percent of the leftovers was changed into its opposite meaning.
