RECYCLED PROPAGANDA

TitleRECYCLED PROPAGANDA
BrandVLUCHTELINGENWERK
Product/ServiceREFUGEE HELP
Category B03. Use of Print / Outdoor
Entrant MORTIERBRIGADE Brussels, BELGIUM
Idea Creation MORTIERBRIGADE Brussels, BELGIUM
Media Placement MORTIERBRIGADE Brussels, BELGIUM
PR MORTIERBRIGADE Brussels, BELGIUM
Production MORTIERBRIGADE Brussels, BELGIUM
Credits
Name Company Position
Joost / Philippe / Jens Berends / De Ceuster / Mortier mortierbrigade creative directors
Frederic Zouag mortierbrigade art director
Nicolas Gaspart mortierbrigade copywriter

Why is this work relevant for Media?

With our people too we recycled existing political posters used by the far-right and repurposed them to communicate the exact opposite of their original message. Reusing their posters in such a confronting way played a major part in this campaign’s success.

Background

Situation Vlaams Belang is the most far-right political party in Flanders. On October 14th they were declared the biggest victor in the Flemish elections with 18,5% of the votes. 18,5% of votes is a lot, but it still means over 80% of Flemish people did nòt vote for them. Even though that’s a lot of people you hardly ever hear their voices online, where the far-right’s presence is much more visible. Challenge After this ‘Black Sunday’, we wanted to make sure the now silent majority would still be heard. Because they, and the refugees seeking help, had to be reminded of the hospitable side of Flanders. Objectives “Our people too” should instigate a political debate. This meant we had to gain enough traction amongst a broad audience, but also trigger some of the politicians involved. As such our objectives focused mainly on reach and earned media.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

We collected the outdoor posters used by political party Vlaams Belang during the most recent elections and recycled them. We turned their negative and excluding message into a positive and welcoming one. By changing their slogan “Eerst onze mensen” (“Our people first”) into “Ook onze mensen” (“Our people too”) we showed the warm and hospitable side of Flanders. Each poster shows a single refugee whose story could be discovered via podcasts and on ourpeopletoo.be.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Our audience was two-fold: - We wanted to remind the silent majority of Flemish people that they did not stand alone. - We wanted to assure refugees that a large part of Flanders was still very open to them. Our media plan consisted of a traditional widespread OOH network supplement with a single burst of large-format guerrilla posters to launch the campaign. Each of these posters directed people towards ourpeopletoo.be where they could learn more about the refugees through podcasts. All of these podcasts where available through Spotify as well.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Our combined ATL and digital efforts sent a shockwave through the Belgian political landscape:

List the results (30% of vote)

Our combined ATL and digital efforts sent a shockwave through the Belgian political landscape: - Potential global reach: 56.562.000 impressions - 670.000 national impressions - A generated PR value of €934.233 And to top it off: Vlaams Belang’s poster child Dries Van Langenhove felt obliged to react as well.