NPR: FOR YOUR RIGHT TO BE CURIOUS
Brand
NPR
Entrant Agency
MISCHIEF AT NO FIXED ADDRESS
Category
Design
Award
Gold
Festival & Year
Cannes Lions (2026)
Case Study Details
#NPR has launched a new campaign called “For Your Right to be Curious.” NPR replaces the letters of its name with the questions “how,” “who,” and “why.” As part of the initiative, NPR will swap out its logo at its Washington D.C. headquarters, billboards in #NewYorkCity and Chicago, and across video and social media.
After a tumultuous year in which the company found itself at the center of a political firestorm and saw #Congress cut $1.1 billion in funding for public media, NPR's national campaign is standing up for people’s right to ask tough questions.
What do you think about the campaign, created by Mischief @ No Fixed Address?
Presentation Board
They can defund public radio, but they can’t defund public curiosity.
CONTEXT In 2025, U.S. Congress cut $1 billion in federal funding for public
media, in an attempt to silence NPR (National Public Radio). For 56 years,
those three letters have delivered rigorous journalism to 99% of Americans,
and are the only source of local news for nearly 40% of them.
EXECUTION Instead of a campaign to defend NPR, we used our iconic logo
to defend people’s rights. Replacing NPR's iconic three-letter logo with
three-letter questions at the heart of journalism: WHY, HOW and WHO.
Redefining a 56-year-old brand with just three letters.
INSIGHT Defunding NPR wasn’t just an attack on public media. It was an
attack on the American public. On their right to be informed. To ask
questions. To be curious.
AND, ON FILM, WE BROUGHT EVEN MORE QUESTIONS TO LIFE.
eae
For your to be curious
= | a
‘AS A RESULT, NOW:
Oo believe NPR fights Oo believe NPR’s Oo are more
73 % for the public's 69 % logo is a symbol 65 % likely to
O right to be curious. O of curiosity. Oo listen to NPR.
