A 3D printer that prints a politician's fact-checked lies, letter by letter, in real bull crap.
- Client
- Buena
- Year
- 2019
- What we did
- Campaign, Production, Strategy
- Result
- Concept and prototype; never launched
Fact-checkers logged thousands of false or misleading claims from Trump, and the flood made outrage hard to sustain. Bull was our proposal to make the lies visible again: a custom printer that extrudes each fact-checked lie in bull manure, posts a photo live, and directs people to donate to independent fact-checkers.
13,000 lies in, people had stopped getting angry
By late 2019, fact-checkers had logged more than 13,000 false or misleading claims from President Trump. That's an average of about 13 a day.
Fighting for the truth had become exhausting. As soon as one lie was debunked, a hundred new ones arrived, and outrage is hard to keep up when there's something new every morning.
The fact-checkers kept meticulous records. The question was how to put their work back in front of people in a way they couldn't scroll past.
A 3D printer that prints his lies in real bull crap
Fight bullcrap with bull crap. Every time fact-checkers flag a new lie, a custom 3D printer prints each letter of it, live, in fresh bull manure instead of plastic.
We photograph every printed lie and post it to a dedicated Twitter feed. Each post points people to a site where they can donate to nonprofit, independent fact-checking groups.
One version even proposed splitting donations among Republican senators who voted for impeachment. The plan was to take it beyond Trump to politicians around the world.
Print the lie
Each fact-checked lie is printed letter by letter in bull manure.
Post it
A photo of every printed lie goes to a dedicated Twitter feed.
Fund the truth
Every post links to donations for independent fact-checkers.
A custom typeface, a paste extruder and Portland's bulls
We spent six months researching and started building a prototype. We drew a custom typeface for the printer, sized letters at 45 and 60 millimeters, wrote the toolpaths, and specced a CNC rig with a paste extruder. A test plate laid out one of Trump's tweets, ready to print.
We started sourcing manure from farms and rodeos around Portland, Oregon. Then we did the math on supply: one 40-by-610-millimeter canister holds enough for about 508 letter A's.
We pitched Bull to The Daily Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, planned a Kickstarter, and applied to A Blade of Grass as a touring art installation. None of them took it on, and Bull never launched.
Fight bullcrap with bull crap.
Gallery
More work
All 41 projects
