Brand | REPRIEVE / FOUNDATION FOR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS |
Product/Service | DRONE STRIKES COLLATERAL DAMAGE AWARENESS |
Entrant | BBDO PAKISTAN Lahore, PAKISTAN |
Category | Use of Social or Community |
Entrant Company
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BBDO PAKISTAN Lahore, PAKISTAN
|
Advertising Agency
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BBDO PAKISTAN Lahore, PAKISTAN
|
Production Company
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BRAVE NEW FILMS Culver City, USA
|
Creative Execution
Once the poster was installed, we photographed it using an actual drone and through a PR push, released the image through the local news media’s online pages along with a simple hashtag that delivered our message: #NotABugSplat. This was further complemented by an informational website and a video that was released on several influencers' Facebook, Twitter and blog pages. Social media was highly instrumental in making the campaign successful.
We went viral overnight. In under two months, 104 million impressions in global news coverage - with 11 million impressions on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram - helped us gain $2,000,000+ in earned media.
The campaign was tweeted about by Pakistan's National Assembly members, and dozens of influencers. Rights activists globally from peacemakers in Yemen all the way to the USA have now picked up the campaign.
Most importantly, we reached our primary target: a recent official US Government Accountability report indicates that negative publicity is now affecting pilot morale.
Drone strikes in Pakistan have killed an estimated 3500+ people, a disturbing percentage of which have been innocent civilians, including more than 200 children. The Foundation for Fundamental Rights has been working to raise awareness of this crisis, but protests in Pakistan go unnoticed globally. Our task was twofold: to create something that would be noticed, especially by the drone operators themselves. And that it would be spread far and wide through an online platform, creating pressure on policy makers.
Humans look like tiny bugs as captured by a distant drone camera, which is why operators call casualties "bug splats." We printed a large-scale portrait of an affected child and laid it out in heavily-bombed NW Pakistan - at a size that would be captured by drone cameras and transmitted directly to a remote pilot's screen, thereby engaging them in direct visual dialogue with a human being, and not a "bug".
Credits
Assam Khalid |
BBDO Pakistan |
Planning Director |
Ali Rez |
BBDO Pakistan |
Creative Director/Concept |
Aamir Allibhoy |
BBDO Pakistan |
General Manager |
Saks Afridi |
|
Artist |
Akash Goel |
|
Coordinator |
Insiya Syed |
Insiya Syed Photography |
Photographer |
J R |
|
Photographer/Artist |
Jamil Akhtar |
|
Photographer |
Imran Arif Khan |
|
Photographer |
Noor Behram |
|
Photographer |
Sana Nasir |
|
Illustrator |
Farooq Niaz |
|
Producer |
Qasim Nagori |
18% Grey Photography |
Retoucher |
Ovais Suhail |
|
Producer |
Zeeshan Parwez |
Zeepar |
Editor |
Faisal Durrani |
BBDO Pakistan |
Deputy General Manager |
Sohaib Zahid Umar |
BBDO Pakistan |
Planning Manager |
Ali Rez |
BBDO Pakistan |
Art Director |
Aurangzaib Zafar |
Beyond Border |
Editor |
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