2019 Brand Experience & Activation

FONTS FOR FREEDOM

Short List
TitleFONTS FOR FREEDOM
BrandREPORTER WITHOUT BORDERS
Product/ServiceINTERNATIONAL PRESS FREEDOM
Category B04. Use of Print or Outdoor
Entrant SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Munich, GERMANY
Idea Creation SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Munich, GERMANY
Media Placement MEDIAPLUS Munich, GERMANY
PR ACHTUNG! Hamburg, GERMANY
Production INSTANT WAVES Berlin, GERMANY
Production 2 SUPREME MUSIC Hamburg, GERMANY
Production 3 BBOX TYPE Berlin, GERMANY
Production 4 NEVEREST München, GERMANY
Production 5 STUDIO HEU.LAND Munich, GERMANY
Additional Company PLAN.NET Munich, GERMANY
Credits
Name Company Position
Alexander Schill SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Global Chief Creative Officer
Leif Johannsen SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Managing Director Art
Patrick Matthiensen SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Managing Director Text
Soen Becker SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Creative Director Art
Eduard Hoerner SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Creative Director Text
Sarah Gstrein SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Art Director
Mojca Zavolovsek SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Art Director
Henrik Claus SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Copywriter
Lennard Bahr SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Account Manager
Marcus Maczey PLAN.NET Managing Director
Tammy Jajes PLAN.NET Art Director
Marlene Ulmer PLAN.NET Account Manager
Jonas Binder MEDIAPLUS Senior Consultant & Planner
Anja Meiners bBox Type Type Designer
Ralph du Carrois bBox Type Type Designer
Claudia Rienhoff achtung! Account Director
Sofia Hiestermann achtung! Senior Account Manager
Lena Marg achtung! Account Manager
Katrin Habermann NEVEREST Producer
Marius Landscheid Studio Heu.Land Web Developer
Volker Heuer Studio Heu.Land Web Developer

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

Reporters Without Borders promotes and defends the freedom to be informed and to inform others throughout the world. Because anyone who arrests, tortures or kills people because of a different opinion is acting against human rights. To combat this, we have developed a campaign that sensitizes the general public to this issue. Daily newspapers are banned to silence their voices. We used this insight and started a unique PR campaign so that these newspapers will not be forgotten.

background

In 2018 alone, over 140 media organisations around the world were closed. Including many daily newspapers. What can Reporters Without Borders do to keep these newspapers from being forgotten?

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Fonts for Freedom. Reporters Without Borders reconstructed the fonts of banned newspapers and turned them into symbols of press freedom.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

We reconstructed the fonts of banned daily newspapers and brought them back into circulation as Fonts for Freedom. The reconstructed fonts of banned daily newspapers were made available to Germany’s leading dailies such as the Süddeutsche, Die Welt, TAZ and Augsburger Allgemeine. They replaced their house fonts on the front and media pages with Fonts for Freedom. This way we turned each newspaper itself into a symbol of press freedom. We also made use of the visit to Germany by the Turkish President Erdogan. We greeted him with posters and mobile billboards on the subject of freedom of the press when he landed at Berlin Tegel Airport. The special: They were designed in the fonts of the daily newspapers which he had previously banned.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

With the help of typographers, Reporters Without Borders reconstructed the fonts of banned newspapers and brought them back into circulation as Fonts for Freedom. The reconstructed fonts were made available to Germany’s leading dailies such as Süddeutsche, Die Welt and TAZ. They replaced their house fonts on the front and media pages with Fonts for Freedom. This turned each edition into a symbol of support for press freedom. On fonts-for-freedom.com we gave everyone the opportunity to learn about the banned newspapers and to take part in the initiative – by making own statements for press freedom. 27 September 2018. Right after he landed in Berlin, we surprised Turkish president Erdoğan with posters supporting press freedom. The posters lent worldwide relevance to repression of the press in Turkey and were turned into symbols of press freedom by the media.

List the results (30% of vote)

Germany's best-known daily newspapers replaced their own fonts on their title and media pages with our Fonts for freedom. In this way, the dailies themselves became the medium and symbol of press freedom. The billboards in which Erdogan was greeted during his visit to Germany went around the world. Not only all well-known news formats reported on the campaign, but also newspapers directly from Turkey. Also, Jan Boehmermann, a German Comedien and world-wide admits from the Erdogan Poem affair quoted the campaign with the words: “Reporters without borders presents the slogan to the Erdogan state attendance”. With 132 countries, 830 million contacts and 2.7 million interactions Fonts for Freedom has brought banned newspapers back into the public focus around the world. And since January 2019 Fonts for Freedom has officially been used by the European Parliament.