Title	THE LAND OF ABSURDITY
Brand	AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Product/Service	THELANDOFABSURDITY.COM - A WEBSITE WHERE YOU CAN SUBMIT RIDICULOUS ZONES TO THE POLISH GOVERNMENT.
Category	A01. Glass
Entrant	ANORAK Oslo, NORWAY
Idea Creation	ANORAK Oslo, NORWAY
Media Placement	ANORAK Oslo, NORWAY
PR	ANORAK Oslo, NORWAY
Production	NORTH KINGDOM Stockholm, SWEDEN

Name	Company	Position
Hallvard Fjeldbraaten	Anorak	Copwriter
Jens-Petter Aarhus	Anorak	Art Director
Marte Langfjæran	Anorak	Designer
Yngve Nilssen	Anorak	Designer
Thea Helgeland	Anorak	Social media manager
Camilla von Borcke	Anorak	Project Manager
Nokkvi Thorsteinsson	Anorak	Motion Designer
Darri Thorsteinsson	Anorak	Motion Designer
Erlend Dal Sakshaug	Anorak	Motion Designer
Emma Thorén	Anorak	Agency Producer
Janne Espevalen	Anorak	Client Director
Kaja Gilje Sekse	Anorak	Planner
Simen Eidsvåg	Sesong 1	PR Director
Siri Hveem	Sesong1	PR Manager

Why is this work relevant for Glass: The Award for Change

The land of absurdity is an Amnesty campaign that addressed a serious treat to the LGBT-community in Poland. The LGBT-free zones are not only dangerous and scary. They are actually quite absurd. Because love is a human right.

Background

Background: Poland has established so called LGBT ideology - free zones; Zones where you're not allowed to express your identity if you're not heterosexual. Media had been talking about it for a while, but it felt like the fear, that the LGBT-free zones was creating, just grew more powerful for every time they were mentioned. Brief: Amnesty International Norway has a long tradition supporting the LGBT-community. Their slogan is Love is a human right. With a small budget Amnesty International asked us to come up with an idea that showed their support and love for the members of the LGBT-community. Objective: With a small budget we knew we had to really ourself on organic reach and earned media.

Describe the cultural / social / political climate in your region and the significance of your campaign within this context

Even though this campaign was created in Norway, it was a campaign made for the internet aimed towards the polish government - a conservative catholic government standing behind the LGBT ideology-free zones. Amnesty International Norway has a long tradition in supporting the LGBT-parade in Norway. We had followed the headlines through the year and seen how the headlines itself had a scary impact. Because every time the LGBT-free zones were mentioned, we were all reminded that this thing exist. We wanted to change that conversation and place the LGBT-free zones in a different context. A context where the LGBT-free zones were not scary at all, but pathetic and absurd; because LOVE IS A HUMAN RIGHT.

Describe the creative idea

Idea: The land of absurdity - a website where anyone could create new and ridiculous zones, publish it on social media, and submit them to the polish government. Yes, just as absurd as their own LGBT-free zones.

Describe the strategy

With less than 5k in media budget we knew we had to bet on people. We started with a tweet to the polish president, presenting our idea in film. That seemed to work, because in a matter of hours our site had been visited from over 37 countries. And since almost every new zone generated a new share, the attention grew with every contribution. Suddenly the LGBT-activists in Poland started using our weapon as theirs and the idea finally made polish headlines.

Describe the execution

Implementation: We created a website where people could create their own ridiculous zones and spread it in social media. We promoted the site with a tweet from Amnesty to the polish president, telling him(and everyone that saw the tweet) about the site. Timeline: The campaign went live on may 27. 2021 and ran up to the pride parade in Norway(June 27). In October Amnesty sent over 2000 unique zone suggestions to the polish government. Placement: - Thelandofabsurdity.com - A tweet from Amnesty International Norway to the polish president. - A Facebook post. Scale: The campaign was highly reliant on organic reach. It was a small budget campaign that was driven by peoples engagement, as they shared their zones in social media, as well as earned media.

Describe the results / impact

Our site got a lot of attention. Our hashtag was trending on Twitter. People from all over the world contributed and created their zone. Thousands of zones were created, liked and shared. We made some polish headlines. And in the end over 2000 unique zones were handed over to the polish government. (We don't have the tools to measure the exact numbers of reach, because of closed profiles on Facebook, but we know that the numbers of engagement was way beyond benchmark.)