Title	STARFAKER
Brand	FONDATION CHIRAC
Product/Service	AGAINST FAKE MEDICINE IN AFRICA
Category	B01. Education & Awareness (incl. Fundraising and Advocacy)
Entrant	HAVAS PARIS Puteaux, FRANCE
Idea Creation	HAVAS PARIS Puteaux, FRANCE
Media Placement	HAVAS PARIS Puteaux, FRANCE
PR	HAVAS PARIS Puteaux, FRANCE
Production	HAVAS PARIS Puteaux, FRANCE

Name	Company	Position
CHRISTOPHE COFFRE	HAVAS PARIS	EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR
ALBAN PENICAUT	HAVAS PARIS	CREATIVE DIRECTOR
CONSTANTIN DE LA BORDE	HAVAS PARIS	COPYWRITER
BENOIT PINON	HAVAS PARIS	ART DIRECTOR

The Campaign

The idea: Use fake music stars to show just how disastrous fake medicine is. The brief was to cause a stir, so butchering real artists’ music with fake versions made sense for our campaign. We convinced Africa’s music stars to accept being faked, before unveiling the trick to deliver our message. Our initiative snowballed and 17 of Africa’s top music artists pranked their fans with fake interviews and songs.

Creative Execution

We created a real environment for our fake stars: fake interviews, fake radio shows, etc. After this content was released and the public started to react, we held the press conference for the campaign launch. The videos of the prank were provided to TV networks, which broadcast them for free, representing €200k in earned media. All the participating artists shared their pranks with their fans on social networks, reaching a total of 10.2 million people. The natural reach would have required a €150k investment. Including press and radio, our campaign totalled €450k in earned media, and Fondation Chirac’s number of Facebook fans increased by 72% in one month, giving our cause the spotlight it deserves.

We gave the media the possibility to broadcast the videos and recordings on their own, which they did. Between September 13 and October 15, the pranks were broadcast 437 times on 11 different continent-wide TV channels and 354 times on 2 different radio stations across the African continent between September 13 and February 1. All the broadcasts were free of charge. Including press and radio, our campaign totalled €450k in earned media, and Fondation Chirac’s number of Facebook fans increased by 72% in one month, giving our cause the spotlight it deserves.

The campaign used fake African music stars in a surprising approach to fighting fake drugs. The fame of the participating artists amplified the impact of the campaign in both conventional and social media. Just as fake drugs thrive on the popularity of their real counterparts, we used real celebrities’ fame to deliver our message to the widest possible audience with zero media investment.

The problem of fake medicine is above all an issue of money, so the target we had to reach was Africa’s poorest and least informed populations. Our approach was to help these populations realize the harmful, disastrous effects of fake medicine easily and safely – and in a striking way – while avoiding placing the blame on them for buying counterfeit products. To achieve this goal, every artist accepted to share their pranks with their fans on social media, and continent-wide media networks also broadcast the pranks on TV and radio as partners.