Title	#HOLDYOURBREATH - HIJACKING THE EUROPEAN ELECTIONS
Brand	SEA WATCH E.V. / DIE PARTEI
Product/Service	TV SPOT
Category	A07. Not-for-profit / Charity / Governemt
Entrant	SCHOLZ & FRIENDS Berlin, GERMANY
Idea Creation	SCHOLZ & FRIENDS Berlin, GERMANY
Media Placement	SEA-WATCH Berlin, GERMANY
PR	SEA-WATCH Berlin, GERMANY
Production	MARKENFILM SCHWEIZ Zürich, SWITZERLAND

Name	Company	Position
Matthias Spaetgens	Scholz & Friends Berlin GmbH	Chief Creative Officer
Oliver Handlos	Scholz & Friends Berlin GmbH	Executive Creative Director
Robert Krause	Scholz & Friends Berlin GmbH	Executive Creative Director
Oliver Handlos	Scholz & Friends Berlin GmbH	Executive Creative Director
Sheryl Ann Hartmann	Scholz & Friends Berlin GmbH	Art Director
Max Hentschel	Scholz & Friends Berlin GmbH	Art Director
Jakob Cantz	Scholz & Friends Berlin GmbH	Copywriter
Nina Stegmann	Scholz & Friends Berlin GmbH	Account Manager
Lisa Erdmann	Scholz & Friends Berlin GmbH	Account Manager
David Voss	Scholz & Friends Berlin GmbH	Agency Producer

Background

The Mediterranean is the deadliest border in the world. One in ten people dies while escaping via the sea route. Instead of saving lives, the EU border policy is actively blocking the rescue efforts of volunteers and NGOs. And with almost no media attention at all, rescue organizations like Sea-Watch were struggling for resources to finance their missions.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

In Germany, every political party gets allocated free airtime to run their campaign commercials during elections. We used the prime time TV campaign slot of the the independent party Die Partei to confront 4.5 million viewers with the harrowing reality in the Mediterranean. When viewers expected another political campaign spot, they were confronted with the most painful message they now couldn’t avoid: A child drowning directly in front of their eyes, followed by a message that reads “Drowning takes just long as this film.”

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

While people were drowning in the Mediterranean, German media was solely focused on the upcoming elections for the European Parliament. In Germany, every political party gets allocated free broadcast slots to run their campaign commercials during elections. Most of the established parties use these slots to talk about nothing at all - making them a much-dreaded annoyance for German TV viewers. But we were going to do something drastically different: Instead of running a campaign commercial for DIE PARTEI, we were going to use their airtime to confront 4.5 million TV viewer with the harrowing reality at Europe’s doorstep: By showing a refugee child drown in front of their eyes. The hashtag #HOLDYOURBREATH is used by celebrities and influencers to lead their followers to the fundraising website www.holdyourbreath.de

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

A few days before the airing of the commercial, DIE PARTEI issued a press release that they would gift one of their government issued prime time TV slots for political campaigning to the NGO Sea-Watch. DIE PARTEI and Sea-Watch invited news outlets to a press conference in Berlin, where we showed the film and gave background information. Here we also announced, that the government funded TV station “ZDF” - where our film was set to run - tried to ban our film. This was followed up by a public statement by party leaders to their social media followers (almost 500k followers in total). At the day of the broadcast, influencers and celebrities shared their solidarity by holding their breath in videos and posts. Also posting the hashtag #holdyourbreath and the URL of our donation website.

List the results (30% of vote)

Initially, Germany’s government funded TV station ZDF tried to ban our film, leading to an uproar across social media and the press. Almost every German news outlet commented on the decision and pointed out the date and time the film was meant to be aired. ZDF eventually gave in and the film was broadcasted to an audience of 4.5 million viewers. Just minutes after the film ran, #holdyourbreath became a trending topic on twitter. Thousands of people were flocking towards our donation site. Across all social media platforms people showed their support and shared our film –amassing 2 million views in just a few days. Almost every press outlet commented on it, with some calling it “the only campaign spot that really matters” (Die Zeit) and “one of the most impressive political calls of this election campaign”. In a matter of days, we reached the funding goal to finance the next mission of the Sea Watch Crew. But most importantly: we made Germany talk about the Mediterranean Crisis again. Which set the stage for everything that happened afterwards.