The profiles of the 'Milk Carton Kids' is something that has recently been in the media. This is due to the recent rerun overview of the missing children, Patrick Warren and David Spencer. The two missing boys were the first to appear on the 4 pint milk cartons in 770 Iceland Stores. This method of appeal began in 1984 after the two separate disappearances of Eugene Martin and Johnny Gosch.
The article posted on 99percentinvisible.org goes into detail of the boy's disappearance and how the local milk carton campaign began. This campaign quickly went national and therefore increased the exposure of the two local boys that were still missing. Over 5 billion cartons were printed with images and details of the missing children however there was little success in finding the missing children.
There has been many controversy comments made about the nature of this campaign, with some suggesting that it was not an appropriate to feature such information on a milk carton. This being due to the conversations that were had over families sharing a meal at the table or from children asking shocking questions. On the other hand, from reading the comments posted about the article, many have said that the campaign raised awareness of 'stranger danger' and therefore made them aware, as children, what to look out for to remain safe. This provides two contradictory opinions towards the appropriatness of posting such media on such a public product.
Questions raised:
- Did broadcasting images of the missing children on milk cartons cause kidnappers to become more frantic and therefore dispose of the children? (if this is what happened...) This may have been the case due to very few of the children being found
- Did posting the pictures help raise awareness and therefore prevent future abductions?
- Overall, the above two questions focus on whether graphic design brings more harm than good.
This could be explored through a range of different graphic design areas such as branding, promotion as well as looking at graphic design in more general
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