Paris-based nonprofit organization Dysturb has launched an inventive and provocative public awareness campaign across the streets of Paris and New York, introducing a fictional beverage called "Source.s" to promote media literacy and critical thinking in an age of widespread misinformation. Unveiled in October 2026, the campaign mimics a conventional commercial product launch, utilizing large-scale murals, striking posters, and promotional cans handed out directly to unsuspecting pedestrians along busy urban thoroughfares.
At first glance, Source.s could easily be mistaken for any number of new health-conscious beverage brands currently crowding the market. The product features a sleek pale-blue aluminum can adorned with oversized navy lettering, while its associated advertising borrows the familiar, reassuring language of refreshment, wellness, and vitality. Although the brand itself is entirely imaginary and invented for the campaign, the promotional cans distributed in the streets are real, tangible objects designed to trick the eye and provoke a moment of cognitive dissonance once examined closely.
The illusion begins to dissolve upon closer inspection of the packaging details. Instead of conventional nutritional facts, an "informational value" label lists 0% fake news alongside 100% critical thinking. Even the ubiquitous language of modern wellness and hydration has been cleverly rewritten. In the American campaign, posters and digital displays urge consumers to "hydrate your mind, filter your feed," transforming a familiar lifestyle slogan into an actionable reminder to question the veracity of the information individuals consume daily. It is a playful yet pointed piece of packaging and environmental design that highlights a deeper societal concern: how readily people place their trust in products, images, and narratives simply because they look professional, polished, and convincing.
Between Paris and New York
The creative execution of the Source.s campaign adapts to its urban environments, taking on two distinct visual identities tailored to the cultural nuances of Paris and New York City. In Paris, the campaign leans into the visual language typically associated with classic European bistro drinks and local advertising. Posters feature oversized yellow typography set against stark photographic backgrounds, while the cans possess the refined, polished appearance of a high-end commercial beverage. A monumental mural installed along the Quai de Valmy anchors the project in the French capital, supplemented by smaller posters plastered across multiple neighborhoods. The Dysturb team also engaged directly with the public by distributing physical cans along the canal and around nearby Métro station entrances.
Across the Atlantic in New York, the American adaptation shifts its aesthetic cues toward contemporary wellness culture and lifestyle branding. The identical pale-blue cans are showcased against bright blue skies and sunlit architectural backdrops, complete with lifestyle imagery featuring models holding the beverage in scenarios traditionally reserved for functional health drinks. Large-scale murals were erected strategically in high-visibility areas, including near the Navy Yard in Brooklyn and key locations in Manhattan.
Notably, Dysturb integrated AI-generated imagery into the campaign’s visual assets—a fascinating methodological choice for an initiative fundamentally concerned with the credibility, authenticity, and verification of visual information. By employing the polished, often deceptive conventions of modern commercial advertising, both the Parisian and New York iterations successfully lend an entirely invented product an air of unquestionable legitimacy.
A Health Warning Disguised as a Drink Campaign
The underlying seriousness of Dysturb’s message becomes much more direct when examining the smaller print embedded within the campaign’s posters. Here, Source.s drops its playful facade to borrow the stern language typically reserved for consumer health warnings and public safety announcements. One prominent poster declares, "Excessive consumption of fake news is hazardous to democracy." Another clever parallel compares questionable, unverified information to a contaminated water source, seamlessly extending the beverage metaphor into a broader commentary on how misleading stories, rumors, and falsehoods circulate unchecked across digital networks. QR codes are strategically integrated alongside the physical advertising, providing curious passersby with a direct pathway to explore the campaign further and engage with educational resources beyond the street-level installations.
For Dysturb, the creation of a fictional beverage provides an innovative mechanism to introduce a complex and persistent societal problem through an unexpected, tangible format. For more than a decade, the organization has dedicated itself to bringing photojournalism and vital public information directly into urban spaces, frequently utilizing large-scale photographic installations to spark public dialogue. With the rollout of Source.s, Dysturb has effectively co-opted the sophisticated techniques of commercial marketing and advertising. The campaign prompts the public to reflect deeply on why professional graphic design, sleek packaging, and familiar branding can imbue a message with an undeserved aura of credibility, often bypassing critical scrutiny before the source has even been investigated.
Free Guides and Verification Tools Expand the Campaign Beyond the Street
The Source.s initiative operates as a cornerstone of Dysturb’s broader Anti Fake News Club, an educational outreach program that provides five comprehensive media-literacy guides available for free download in English, French, and Spanish. These practical educational materials are designed to demystify the underlying mechanics of modern misinformation and address the psychological habits that influence how everyday audiences encounter and share the news. Featuring practical exercises, the guides encourage readers to look past sensational headlines, cross-reference independent information sources, and carefully examine the origins and contexts of photographs and digital media.
Specific modules within the guides explain how simple techniques such as aggressive image cropping or deliberately misleading captions can fundamentally alter the meaning of a photograph, while other sections investigate the powerful role that recommendation algorithms play in curating the content that appears within personal social media feeds. These valuable educational resources have already been integrated into numerous formal curricula across schools and various public institutions.
Looking forward, the organization is also actively developing "JustCheck," an advanced digital verification platform designed to assist everyday users in evaluating questionable or ambiguous content encountered online. According to Dysturb, the proposed tool will be capable of analyzing a wide array of user submissions—ranging from digital screenshots to full video files—and returning a comprehensive credibility assessment backed by verifiable evidence and credible sources.
For now, however, Source.s succeeds in putting these critical questions into an immediate, physical setting. Whether a fake drink is spotted resting on a local café table or plastered across a prominent neighborhood wall, complete with all the meticulous visual cues of a genuine consumer product, its true purpose becomes strikingly apparent the moment an observer stops to read the label.
