It's funny what a little advertising can do. Not only do posters, t-shirts, stickers and handbills help sway public opinion, but they can actually permit youths to legally violate curfews. Used appropriately, this can be just the preemptive strike that's needed to stop a curfew before it starts. Used inappropriately, however, it can make minors look bad and even be used as evidence that a curfew should be passed.

All of the below images can be downloaded as Adobe Acrobat files. Simply print them out and take them to your local copy shop or printer to get reproductions made. They've been made in the most efficient method, which means that, in some cases, you'll see a few images. For example, the stickers popup shows three stickers. That's so that they'll fit on an 8.5"x11" sheet for reproduction purposes.

T-Shirts
These are one of those effective forms of protesting curfews. Not only are they relatively cheap to wear, but they tend to get read, they're easy to make use of (compare them with, say, carrying around a picket sign for a few months), and they can actually help the curfew be evaded.

A good curfew protest shirt should be fairly ugly. Skip the drawings and pictures, fancy fonts or color. They clutter up the message. Remember, a t-shirt is a picket sign that you can wear. It should read "I'm Protesting The Curfew." If you want to get fancy, you can add "Exercising My First Amendment Rights" and even quote from the First Amendment. The benefits of this shirt are two-fold:

• It helps turn public opinion against the curfew, as people will see them and associate them with youths. It's a little more personable approach than posters, which are easier to ignore and less likely to give a warm, fuzzy feeling, or some such nonsense, to viewers.
• If said curfew has an exception for youths exercising their First Amendment rights, wearing this shirt will actually permit kids to be out during curfew hours. Simply wearing the shirt is a form of protest.

Our version is quite simple. It says "Protesting The Curfew," then "Congress shall make no law respecting...the right of the people peaceably toassemble..." followed by "Exercising My First Amendment Rights." All of this is stated in large, bold letters. No decorations and nothing fancy.

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Posters
These have to be interesting looking. Look around your town and take a survey of the posters. What's the most common color of paper used? On what day of the week is most of the postering done? Is there much blank space on the posters, or is there a lot of ink?

Posters have to have a brief, short message in large letters. People need to get the message even if they don't stop to read, which most don't. If they do, provide the rest of the information. But don't overwhelm people: No more than 50-100 words.

Be sure to provide a way to take action. An e-mail address, a website, a phone number -- something. Avoid things like GeoCities addresses -- nobody can remember them, and it looks weak. Many Internet Service Providers will provide free or discounted website hosting to non-profits. If all else fails, curfew.org might be able to host your site. You could even provide contact data for your local law-making body, ideally the one that passed / seeks to pass this curfew.

When going out to poster, be certain to bring both a stapler and tape. You can hang the stapler on your belt. Do not poster anywhere illegal. That means no utility poles, newspaper boxes or private property. Most towns provide legal places to poster. You can ask shopkeepers if they'd mind if you put a poster in their window. If you do this, don't use cheap tape. It's hard to remove from glass. Don't ever put your posters over other posters, unless they're outdated.

No typographical errors. Don't make this look childish, or you'll be digging your own grave. You have to make this reaction to the curfew look well-organized, flawlessly executed, and run entirely by youths. Intelligent, interesting, don't-need-curfews kind of youths. Don't screw it up.

We've made a poster that's generally informative about curfews.

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• Proposed Curfew Version
• Existing Curfew Version

See It
Download It

• Proposed Curfew Version
• Existing Curfew Version