Sappi Ideas that Matter - Book 7

North America
Ametrica!
US Metric Association
118
The United States is one of three nations today still not
committed to metric conversion, keeping company with
Liberia and Myanmar. Using a measurement system
other than the international standard has caused
inefficiencies in education and manufacturing, and put
US business and labour at a competitive disadvantage
in the global market.
The US Metric Association (USMA) maintains an
archive of metric information in order to advise
government and industry at meetings where the metric
system is a topic of concern. The USMA qualifies
Certified Metrication Specialists, encourages the
public to enrol as members and as spokespeople for
metrication, with the ultimate goal of converting the
United States to the metric system.
Growing up in Taiwan and the Dominican Republic,
studying science first, as an undergraduate, then
graphic design for a Master’s degree, and finding herself
with friends from around the world, designer Amy Wang
of Carbone Smolan in New York City, became convinced
through personal experience of the need to go metric.
Her feeling was that, while the USMA carries out vital
work, it lacks a public-friendly component: Ametrica!
was therefore an attempt to preach to the unconverted,
as well as motivating and unifying those who already
believe in the benefits of metric conversion.
Using outdoor advertising, such as bus shelters,
phone booth posters, wrapped buses, painted trucks,
electronic taxi billboards, as well as indoor media, such
as coffee cup sleeves, grocery bags, packing tape,
campaign pins, television and web, Amy’s campaign
injects cheeky humour into a subject that is generally
quite dry.
Along with a pitch book that appeals to cultural,
financial and legislative leaders, the campaign has
already aroused the curiosity of all who’ve seen it,
prompting most to question why one of the world’s
leading nations is still out of sync with the rest of
the globe.