Social Change for Christmas? How about an ad aimed at reducing terrorism.
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness
Need a reason to celebrate this time of year? Want an extremely creative example of effecting social change?
In a coming together of advertising & social responsibility, a Colombian ad agency won the grand prize at a prestigious London ad awards ceremony recently with their ad designed to reduce terrorism.
The agency sent soldiers into FARC guerrilla occupied jungles to string Christmas light (no, this isn’t a joke).
The Christmas light were designed to turn on when someone approached and light up a sign that encouraged the guerrillas to ‘demobilize’. (Imagine the shock of jungle critters as they prowled by & set off the lights.)
331 FARC fighters were inspired, in part by the PR operation, to give up their weapons, as Simon Houpt writes in the Globe & Mail.
Here’s to peace on earth, including peace in the jungle.
Tags: Christmas, inspiration, simon houpt
December 22nd, 2011 at 8:00 am
Is there additional additional coverage/links from Colombian press i.e. photos, videos, etc. that 331 FARC rebels turned in their weapons? industryvisionary@gmail.com
Please and thank you,
James
December 26th, 2011 at 5:07 am
Hi James, I don’t have any additional resources at my fingertips however I’ve tweeted your request to Simon Houpt, the writer whose article I got my information from. Let me know what info turns up, I’d be curious to hear more.