Free speech = luxury?
One of our clients, Hal Gershman of Happy Harry’s Bottle Shops, has a friend whose entire family was expelled from Zimbabwe and came to the States with only their suitcases. They were caught up in the Mugabe regime’s reign and lost everything. Hal shared this compelling advertising case study, which includes billboards that won top honors in this year’s Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival (the Oscars of advertising).
The Zimbabwean reported on how the Mugabe regime rigged elections, crushed the opposition, caused poverty, disease and the country’s economic collapse. The regime then called the newspaper a luxury, adding a 55% duty tax to import it, making it unaffordable for the Zimbabwean readers it so desperately needed to reach.
Ad agency TBWA\HUNT\LASCARIS produced a campaign with a series of billboards made out of now worthless Zimbabwean banknotes, printed with statements such as “Thanks to Mugabe this money is wallpaper,” “It’s cheaper to print on this money than on paper,” and “Fight the regime that has crippled a country.”
The agency says the Zimbabwean currency was “an eloquent symbol” of the spectacular collapse of the country’s economy.
It worked: The campaign raised awareness for the newspaper and its situation around the world. Thanks to Hal for sharing the story
