THE ONLY JOURNALIST THAT CAN SPEAK UP WITHOUT FEAR IN MEXICO IS A DEAD ONE.
Using AI, we brought Javier Valdez murdered in 2017, and his work back to life. Instead of becoming silent, Javier became a symbol of resistance, and even more — a face and voice behind whom his other colleagues could anonymously continue speaking up.
To inspire credibility and to achieve the involvement of our prominent journalists targeted, in terms of execution, we crafted not only an identical image thanks to Deepfake, but also we successfully recreated his voice, by recording several voices of male members of Javier Valdez’s family.
Describe the execution
Can a murdered journalist refuse to be silenced? What if it only made their voice louder, while also helping protect their colleagues?
For the president it wasn’t a relative nor a friend, but Javier Valdez - a journalist murdered for his investigations; who, thanks to AI, came back on this day in 2020 to demand justice for himself and his colleagues, and free speech for everyone.
The project ran in main Mexican and international news, including national TV, social media, and news websites, generating 349M impressions in less than 1 week.
This campaign is part of the #StillSpeakingUp platform created to use the identities of murdered journalists to protect the safety of the ones at risk today.
April 2019. Murdered journalists’ Twitter accounts revived
Feb 2020. The press conference w/ pilot video of revived Javier
Nov 2020. Day of the Dead: Javier addresses the president on National TV