The goal of any alternative media campaign is to get people to look, then look again. In the case of one recent campaign in Bogotá, the aim went further: to get people, to look, look again, to stare, then to march.
The cause of the march was to protest the violence being wrought by FARC, a leftist rebel group that uses kidnapping as one of its tactics in its effort to overthrow the government of Colombia.
To promote the march, sponsored by MOVICE (Movimiento De Victimas De Crimenes De Estado – Movement of the Victims of State Crimes), Sancho BBDO came up with an unusual campaign: actors chained to bus shelters as mock prisoners.
The striking images were to remind people of the many Colombians who had disappeared at the hands of the drug-funded rebel group, says Hugo Corredor, the agency's creative director.
“We’re advertisers, but we’re Colombian first, and our country’s situation is something that touches all of us,” says Corredor.
The actors were made to look like a farmer, a policeman and a political leader, Ingrid Betancourt, a Colombian senator who was kidnapped by the FARC in 2002. A sign said: “Since you can do it, go out and march against FARC.”
The actors were chained up at 10 bus shelters around Bogotá.
"The march was going to take place at 2 p.m., so we put out the messages at 7 a.m. the same day,” says Corredor.
The campaign appears to have had the desired effect, he says. "People took photos from their mobile phones, some stopped in front the piece and applauded, and some cried."
The rally drew anywhere from 500,000 to 2 million people, depending on which news account you read.
