CHAnge?

Yesterday I got wind of an anonymous web page that criticizes the Chicago Housing Authority's current situation by taking aim at the city organization's latest ad campaign, "This is CHAnge". The group that also goes by the name Chicago Housing Authority claims that "This PR campaign, authored by the advertising giant Leo Burnett...[resulted] in a new brand identity: CHAnge," reflecting actual conditions: "Including massive organizational restructuring within CHA and the tearing down of all high-rise public housing buildings...Unfortunately, the priorities of CHA haven't changed at all, and public housing residents are still at the bottom of the list."



The image at left shows the real CHA's ad campaign, a South Side attorney quoted as saying, "Public housing is coming to a point I hoped it would - full circle." Alternately the fake CHA includes the line "Are tourists more important than the poor?" above a mug of the Mayor and a photo of Millennium Park's "bean". According to CHAos's site, poster size ads were installed in JC Decaux bus stops and other CTA locations around the city on May 27, all but one removed by noon that day.

While I find the play on the CHA's ad campaign clever and a bit humorous (they even copy the CHA's own web page almost to the letter, making it difficult for me to keep track of each, perhaps a dangerous move that may spell disaster for this anonymous page), I can't really find the effort having any significant impact or leading to any real CHAnge. But the CHAos web page also includes information on the CHA's latest "Plan for Transformation", as well as Resources and Resident Voices, pages with information that may at least educate people on the history and current state of public housing and eventually lead to worthwhile change.

Update 06.10: The Chicago Reader has a feature on CHA's mock advertising (in PDF format).