“Social egg freezing” (freezing eggs for lifestyle rather than medical reasons) is a rapidly growing social trend. The Wellcome Trust wanted to generate public debate on this topic and its potential impact on society, using research carried out by the London School of Economics and Political Science.
What did we do?
We designed and produced Timeless, a fictional beauty brand and pop-up shop that opened for six days in London’s Old Street Station.
Visitors to the shop discovered a unique range of products and perfumes designed to look like a new beauty brand. But these products in fact imparted unbiased information on the practicalities of the egg freezing process, as well as the social and ethical issues that inform a woman’s decision to freeze her eggs.
More than 1200 people visited the shop over the six days and more than 5,000 people engaged with the specially created Timeless website. The project received extensive coverage across print, online, TV and radio, including a cover feature in The Observer magazine and live pieces on BBC Radio, LondonLive and Sky News.
In New Scientist, Agatha Haines hailed Timeless as a good beginning to addressing the knowledge gap on this subject: “ This pop-up provocation provided women with an opportunity to discuss an intimate issue in an intimate setting. Time spent here showed me how to think about an idea whose revolutionary promise is matched only by the dearth of public information about it”.
Timeless went on to pop-up at multiple locations in the UK.
“The most important thing I’ve learned is that the way to do really good public engagement about science or social science is to involve people whose background is not as academic scientists or social scientists. Timeless is an excellent example of how invaluable expertise in design and the arts is to creative public engagement.”
— Professor Emily Jackson, Law, London School of Economics and Political Science
