Title	UNMUTE US
Brand	UNMUTE US
Product/Service	PROTEST
Category	D04. Live Advertising & Events
Entrant	BOOMERANG AGENCY Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Idea Creation	BOOMERANG AGENCY Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Post Production	BOOMERANG AGENCY Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

Name	Company	Position
Tanya Ponomareva	Boomerang Agency	Creative Director
Eldin Fetahovic	Boomerang Agency	Chief Creative Officer
Diederik Luger	Boomerang Agency	Strategist
Willemijn de Groot	Boomerang Agency	senior projectmanager
Anouk Facee Schaeffer	Boomerang Agency	Brand Manager
Claire Ijsbrandij	Boomerang Agency	Senior Creative
Lucas Camps	Boomerang Agency	Director
Anton Veselov	Boomerang Agency	Editor
Sophia Nussey	Boomerang Agency	Project manager
Dennis Vernooij	Boomerang Agency	designer

Cultural / Context information for the jury

Covid-19 has ravaged the Dutch events industry, which employs over 100,000 people. And there didn’t seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel. In addition to job insecurity, the number of people suffering from anxiety, depression and isolation was at an all time high. Government policy has been vague and inconsistent and the industry has been consistently sidelined. From the start of the pandemic in the Netherlands noisey gatherings were prohibited. But we needed a way to make our voices heard.So we hacked the system. We called our protest #UnmuteUs. Because we knew that the government couldn’t silence a protest if the protest was about unmuting people. So, that was our solution. A protest disguised as a festival, a festival disguised as a protest. A movement to represent those who felt silenced and give them a voice and forum for self-expression.

Write a short summary of the ambient work.

We shared our message online in a campaign that immediately went viral, but also on the streets. A festival disguised as a protest, a protest disguised as a festival. Over 220.000 people attended in 10 cities across the country. Together forming the biggest demonstration the Netherlands has seen in 17 years.