www.ownwhatyouthink.com

Click the links or scroll down to learn about the different phases of the Own What You Think campaign.

» Petition
» T-Shirts
» Posters
» Love Wall

Petition.
4/1/2008-Present

The petition represents the focal point of Own What You Think by publicly outlining the mission statement of the campaign, which begins with the declaration "We, the undersigned, commit ourselves to taking a stand against anonymous character assassination, a culture of gossip, and all other acts of ethical and intellectual cowardice." The text was developed by various student leaders, administrators and groups on campus through a collaborative writing process.

Once completed, the mission statement was posted online and opened for all students to sign by simply entering their name and email address. Since the petition's launch, it has garnered nearly 2,500 signatures from campuses around the country.

T-Shirts.
4/8/2008 - 4/10/2008

The t-shirt campaign was organized to unify and identify proponents of the campaign, as well as to get the word out to the student body about the petition and website. 320 t-shirts bearing the phrase "anonymity=cowardice" were distributed to the first group of signers of the petition. The students who received the shirts pledged to wear them on Tuesday and Thursday of that week in order to make a united statement to the college community. Today, the shirts continue to serve as a reminder of the mission statement of the campaign and its growing momentum.

Posters.
4/10/2008 - 4/17/2008

Approximately a week after the release of the website and petition, a poster campaign was launched to address the issue of poster censorship and vandalism on campus, as identified in the Own What You Think mission statement. Featuring the phrase "You Can’t Tear Me Down," the posters also highlighted positive affirmations that students had submitted for the Love Wall event. The second stage of the postering campaign highlighted the names of student leaders who had signed the petition, their number on the petition and the reasons why each of them chose to participate in the campaign. The prominence of the names on the posters only served further to underscore the point that "anonymity=cowardice."

The posters are available for download on the resources page.

LoveWall.
4/12/2008 - 4/18/2008

The most recent phase of the campaign aimed to show free speech in a positive and very public manner. The Love Wall, a 14 by 10-foot screen in front of the campus center, displayed positive affirmations and comments written by Princeton students about Princeton students for two weeknights from 9:00pm to 1:00am.

Prior to the Love Wall event, students were asked to email positive statements to ownwhatyouthink@gmail.com. In addition, a table was set up in the campus center where students could upload comments as they walked by. As a small incentive for participation, students at the campus center were given packs of Orbit gum, whose advertising logo encourages people to "clean out their mouths." All of the comments were collected and set up in a PowerPoint presentation, which ran on a loop throughout the duration of the event. Displaying the Love Wall in such a public venue during peak "going out" times for students proved to be effective in spreading the message to even more people on campus, and participation in the campaign and the number of petition signatures continued to climb.