Channel 4’s Hunted campaign helps Londoners evade surveillance

If you’re based in London, it’s likely on your morning commute you’ve spotted the unnerving black and yellow ads telling you to hide your face plastered all over cash machines, phone boxes and train carriages throughout the city.  The posters are part of a campaign to promote Channel 4’s new show Hunted, “a dramatic exploration of 21st Century tracking in Britain.” On screens this Thursday, the programme sees a group of average Brits attempt to disappear with a team of expert hunters to test their ability to go truly off-grid.

Designed with London-based Bold & Bold, the 4Creative campaign takes up ad space across the city including train station “takeovers” at Liverpool Street and London Victoria, “resulting in every Londoner seeing the campaign an average of 33 times.” ATMs tell us to cut up our card, floor tiles say our travel card is a tracking device and toilet signs order us to leave no trace. The ads demand attention using a punchy, cautionary yellow covered in black, warped type conveying the disturbing messages. The cleverness in the campaign is speaking so directly to us, as they simply increase the unnerving feeling we’re being watched.